Find exact match only using LOOKUP (not VLOOKUP)?

[paulr24]

I am in the process of creating a file using a few different lookups and I'm running into some problems. I am looking to use a function in order to perform a lookup and return exact matches only, but I can't use VLOOKUP (which I know allows you to find exact matches only by stating FALSE at the end) since I have already used it in a different part of this sheet (can't change the order of the columns since the leftmost column is being used by this VLOOKUP).

Is there a way to use the LOOKUP function but have it only return exact matches? I was thinking I could use some kind of IF function but I'm having trouble coming up with a solution.

[NBVC]

Why can't you use VLOOKUP again? You are able to use VLOOKUP more than once in a sheet

Also, an alternative is INDEX/MATCH.

[MarvinP]

Hi Paul,

I agree with NBVC that if you are already using VLookup you have it available. Lookup was in the very early versions of Excel and isn't as useful. The very first Lookup() defaulted to True so it didn't check if the match was exact or not. The alternative is to use Index/Match but that is a lot harder than VLookup.

I really think you have an understand problem. It doesn't make sense to me when you say "you've already used VLookup" somewhere else in the sheet and don't want (can't?) use it again. Why might that be? Did you think you can only use it 3 times or ???

[paulr24]

Sorry guys, you are right, it was my misunderstanding. I hadn't used Excel functions in a while so I have been reading some guides and things and I totally misunderstood a pretty clear statement. It said that VLOOKUP "Searches for a value in the first column of a table array and returns a value in the same row from another column in the table array." For some reason I just saw "first column" and had it in my head that it only searches for values in the first column of the entire spreadsheet. Thanks for setting me straight.