Excel provides hundreds of worksheet functions that you can use to build formulas, modify data, and get just the information you need in a cell. Of all the worksheet functions available, few are more powerful, as a group, than the lookup functions. The functions in this group allow you to indirectly access information in a worksheet; they allow you to "look up" information based upon various parameters that you specify.
In total there are seven lookup functions provided in Excel, but while the number of functions may seem small, the power these functions provide you is anything but small. The lookup functions are some of the most misunderstood worksheet functions in Excel. They are definitely not the first functions people think of when learning how to use Excel, but they are essential to understand if you want to master how your data is accessed in your formulas. Once you understand how to use these functions, you'll see numerous ways in which you can enhance your worksheets.
The pages of ExcelTips: Powerful Lookup Functions, second edition, provide valuable tutorial information and dozens of tips that can help you better understand not only what lookup functions are, but how to use them in real-world scenarios to improve the calculations you must do in your own workbooks. In short, ExcelTips: Powerful Lookup Functions provides a comprehensive collection of information not available in any other single source.