How to VLOOKUP Function From Another Sheet in Google Sheets

If you are supposed to work with enormous datasets or attempt to correlate data from many sheets within a Google Sheets document then you come to the right place. With the help of the popular function of VLOOKUP, you may look up specified values in one sheet of data and also extract the information from another sheet. This will speed up data analysis, save time, and produce wonderful results if you become good at using this function. 

This guide will help you in understanding the “VLOOKUP” function in Google Sheets and its usage. 

What is the VLOOKUP in Google Sheets?

The “vertical lookup” function, or VLOOKUP, is a strong and frequently used function in Google Sheets. It enables you to look for a specific value in the table’s or range’s leftmost column and then obtain that value from a particular column within that range.

When working with massive datasets or when you need to locate and extract specific information from another sheet within the same document, the VLOOKUP function is useful. This saves a lot of time and work by doing away with manual searching and sorting.

Finding corresponding data, integrating datasets, and many more activities are made simple with the VLOOKUP function. It is an essential tool for data analysis because of its simplicity.

What is the General Usage Syntax for the VLOOKUP in Google Sheets?

The VLOOKUP function in Google Sheets has the following common usage syntax:

=VLOOKUP(search_key, range, index, [is_sorted])

The explanation of the general syntax is as follows:

  • search_key: The value that should be used to search in the range’s first column
  • range: It specifies the search’s upper and lower bounds.
  • index: The index of the column containing the range’s return value and the index both have to be positive integers.
  • is_sorted: Optional input and choose an option
    • FALSE = Exact match 
    • TRUE = Approximate match

How Does Google Sheets’ VLOOKUP Function Work From Another Sheet?

To understand the usage of the VLOOKUP function in Google Sheets to find out specific information from another sheet, we will consider the example. Consider the “Student Results” Google Sheet:

Now in Sheet 3, we will use the VLOOKUP formula to extract the marks of “John”:

=VLOOKUP(A1, Result!$B:$C, 2, FALSE)

The marks of the student “John” has been extracted. The explanation of the above example is first specified as the “Student name” whose marks are supposed to be extracted. Then, we specified the sheet name and the range from which the function VLOOKUP will search for the specified results. The “$” sign with the column name finds the information in the entire column. Then, we defined the number of the column and lastly, we used the “FALSE” because we want exactly matched results. 

How Does Google Sheets’ VLOOKUP Function Work From Multiple Tabs?

To understand the usage of the VLOOKUP function in Google Sheets to find out specific information from multiple tabs, we will consider the example. Consider the Student’s Result of the above example:

Now, consider “Sheet3” has the information of seven more students:

All the Student’s record is combined in “Sheet4”:

Finally, we will insert the marks of all the students in “Sheet4” using the VLOOKUP formula:

=ARRAYFORMULA(VLOOKUP(B2:B15, {Result!$B2:$C15; Sheet3!$B15:$C177}, 2, False))

Press the “ENTER” key to display the results of the VLOOKUP formula:

The “Marks” has been searched and entered against the “Student Name” in “Sheet 4”. 

Explanation: In the above example, we used the arrayformula because more than one sheet is supposed to be evaluated. Then, following the general syntax of the VLOOKUP, we will define the first sheet and its range of cells. With the symbol of a comma, define the second sheet and its range of cells. The Vlookup will find the information in the corresponding sheets.  

That’s all about “ VLOOKUP from another Sheet in Google Sheets”.

Conclusion

For the usage of the VLOOKUP function for finding the specified information from another sheet in Google Sheets, follow the general syntax of “=VLOOKUP(search_key, range, index, [is_sorted])”. The usage of the mentioned general syntax of VLOOKUP in Google Sheets has been explained in this blog with the help of an example.