![]() ![]() This is not obvious from the name of the function and is a source of frustration among almost all-new Google Sheet users. Let’s look to an example where the cell A1 contains the key we need to resolve, and the value of cell B1 is defined by the following formula:įirst important note: the lookup() formula works correctly only if the keys are sorted. The Google implementation of the lookup functions is easy to understand and to use. A lookup function, in a way similar to a hash table, will allow my spreadsheet, given 2 letters identifying a state, like “CA”, to retrieve its full name “California”. ![]() A simple example is a structure that maps the 2 letter symbol of each American state to the full name of the state. What’s a Hash Table?Ī Hash Table is an associative structure that can map keys to values. Many people with a basic technical background know that a lookup function is just an implementation of a hash table. My intent is to share what I learned about a less common yet beneficial way to leverage these functions to improve some of the most common tasks. Stay with me and you will quickly master this new technique. Rather than adding yet another explanation of the basics of these powerful functions, I’m going to explore a better, more more efficient way of using these functions with a few simple examples. The lookup(), vlookup(), and hlookup() functions (aka xLookup ) are described in many tutorials and videos. ![]()
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