why is index match superior to vlookup?

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Many reasons, one is vlookup can’t go backwards

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If you insert/delete columns with vlookup it messes up. Index match adapts to the column position - same as a sum if.

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And it’s faster, with big datasets vlookup might crash your model

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The lookup value doesn’t have to be the left most column

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If you don’t know you haven’t used it. If you haven’t used it you won’t understand. In your world you might know vlookup and it’s gotten you through what you need. If you’ve never had a smartphone why do you need one?

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Soon the question will become "why is Xlookup better than Index match and Vlookup?"

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Will try this, thank you!

The only downfall of index match is sorting- you can’t just click sort on a column and all the rows will change. It’s more manual. Otherwise index match is extremely versatile

When you use index match, you likely have Match(Sheet!A1,...)
That’s what creates the trouble when sorting
If you write match(a1...) instead, you don’t have any problem
Discovered 2 weeks ago and changing my life !

I use index match all the time. Example: I get 2 spreadsheets with different data. I need to cut the data from both spreadsheets. How do I match them up?? Index match!! If I have a column that more or less has the same data in 2 different spreadsheets, works great, while vlookup just tells me if some data that I’m looking for is there. Great, but not helpful.

VLOOKUP only finds the first match in the left-most column in a range; INDEX and MATCH can find n instances of a value, assuming it's sorted by that column, if you also incorporate OFFSET.

Combine INDEX MATCH with COLUMN and tables and you have everything you need.

Simpler to do index match match !

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Flexibility in horizontal / vertical lookups and memory efficiency when you deal with large datasets

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