Locate information using Match Function in Excel

With this post, my aim is to help you Locate information using Match Function in Excel. In the practice file of this video lesson, I have three sheets:

1. See it: This is where I will demonstrate the lesson.
2. Do it: This sheet is for you to practice.
3. Dataset: This sheet is where we have the data we are using to demonstrate the lesson.

The Match function searches for an item in a row or a column and then returns its position from a given range. The Function is designed to search for a specified item in a range of cells either in a single row or a single column. It will not function properly when tried on a matrix.

Match Function Arguments

The match function takes in 3 arguments.

1. lookup_value: What are you looking for?
2. lookup_array: Which row or a column do you want to look inside?
3. match_type: This is an optional value that specifies how accurate the returned value should be. Refer the table below for more details on match_type argument:

Match_type	Behavior
1 or omitted	MATCH finds the largest value that is less than or equal to lookup_value. The values must be placed in ascending order, for example: …-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, …, A-Z, FALSE, TRUE.
0	MATCH finds the first value that is exactly equal to lookup_value; the argument can be in any order.
-1	MATCH finds the smallest value that is greater than or equal tolookup_value. The values must be placed in descending order, for example TRUE, FALSE, Z-A, …2, 1, 0, -1, -2, …, and so on.

Please go ahead and watch the video below to learn how to Locate information using Match Function in Excel.

Excel Learning Series – TOC

1. Excel 2016 – Basics – Find Sum, Average, Min and Max
2. Excel 2016 Difference Between Formulas and Functions
3. Excel 2016 Copy Formulas or Functions
4. Microsoft Excel Auto Fill
5. Excel 2016 Manage Views using Freeze Panes
6. Microsoft Excel – Saving Workbooks
7. Excel Upper and Lower Text Functions
8. Excel 2016 – Text Function – Proper
9. Excel Text Functions – Trim Function
10. Excel – Text Function Left Function
11. Excel Text Function – Right Function
12. Excel Text Functions – MID Function
13. Excel Concatenate Text Function
14. Excel Nested Functions
15. Excel Search Function
16. Excel – Calculate Age using Date Function Today
17. Calculate Tenure in Excel with Days Function
18. Autofill Dates in Excel
19. Formatting Dates in Excel
20. Excel Date Format Shortcut
21. Calculating Sum of Time in Excel
22. Calculate Expiry Date in Excel 2016 – EDATE
23. Find Age or Tenure using DATEDIF in Excel 2016
24. RandBetween – Generate Random Dates in Excel 2016
25. Excel Weekday Function
26. Excel WeekNum and ISOWeekNum Functions
27. Excel Networkdays and Excel Networkdays.INTL
28. Excel Workday and Workdays INTL Functions
29. Excel DATEVALUE AND TIMEVALUE
30. Calculate Time Difference in Excel
31. Calculate Quarter in Excel
32. Rounding Day, Hour and Minutes in Excel
33. Excel Pay Rate and Downtime Cost Calculation
34. Excel Logical Functions IF, AND, OR
35. Calculate Bonus in Excel Using IF Function
36. Excel Learning – SumIF and SumIFS
37. How to use Excel Count Functions
38. How to use VLOOKUP in Excel
39. How to vLookup in a different workbook in Excel
40. VLookup for Multiple Sheets with Example
41. Excel Custom Quarters
42. Vlookup Return Custom Value
43. Vlookup Based on Dropdown Selection
44. HLookup in Excel
45. Locate information using Match Function in Excel

We hope you find this post useful. In case you are stuck and or need help, feel free to drop a comment below or submit your question. Do share it further and add your feedback about the article in the comments section.