Chapter 14: Creating Formulas That Look Up Values
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The function’s arguments are as follows:l lookup_value: The value to be looked up in the lookup_vector.l (^) lookup_vector: A single-column or single-row range that contains the values to be looked
up. These values must be in ascending order.
l (^) result_vector: The single-column or single-row range that contains the values to be
returned. It must be the same size as the lookup_vector.
Caution
Values in the lookup_vector must be in ascending order. If lookup_value is smaller than the smallest value in
lookup_vector, LOOKUP returns #N/A.
Figure 14.4 shows the tax table again. This time, the formula in cell B3 uses the LOOKUP function
to return the corresponding tax rate. The formula in cell B3 is
=LOOKUP(B2,D2:D7,F2:F7)
Caution
If the values in the first column are not arranged in ascending order, the LOOKUP function may return an
incorrect value. n
Note that LOOKUP (as opposed to VLOOKUP) requires two range references (a range to be looked
in, and a range that contains result values). VLOOKUP, on the other hand, uses a single range for
the lookup table, and the third argument determines which column to use for the result. This
argument, of course, can consist of a cell reference.
FIGURE 14.4
Using LOOKUP to look up a tax rate.