Excel's XLOOKUP Function

Author: David H. Ringstrom

Microsoft announced the new XLOOKUP function for Office 365 in August 2019. As is typical for Office 365 features, this function will be pushed out to users in waves. In this course you’ll get an overview of the new XLOOKUP function and see how it compares to both VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH, as well as the similarities that XLOOKUP has with the obsolete LOOKUP function in Excel. David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2021, 2019, 2016 and earlier) during the course as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the course. Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don't change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2021, Excel 2019, and so on.

Publication Date: October 2023

Designed For
Practitioners interested in seeing the capabilities of the new XLOOKUP worksheet function in Microsoft 365.

Topics Covered

• Comparing the new XMATCH function in Excel 2021 and Microsoft 365 to the MATCH function available in all versions of Excel
• Contrasting the INDEX and MATCH combination to VLOOKUP or HLOOKUP
• Correcting numbers stored as text in spreadsheets
• Demonstrating how XLOOKUP can look up and down columns or across rows
• Diagnosing #N/A errors that arise when numbers are stored as text or when text contains extraneous spaces
• Displaying alternate results with XLOOKUP by populating the If_Not_Found argument instead of using IFERROR or IFNA
• Enabling VLOOKUP to look up data from the left (instead of only from the right) by using the CHOOSE function
• Exploring the XLOOKUP worksheet function in Excel 2021 and Microsoft 365
• Exploring the nuances of wildcard lookups with XLOOKUP
• Exploring the risks and benefits of participating in the free Microsoft Office Insider program
• Improving the integrity of spreadsheets by using SUMIF to look up values in a more flexible fashion than VLOOKUP
• Investigating the risks associated with the obsolete LOOKUP function

Learning Objectives

• Identify the purpose of Excel's XLOOKUP function
• Describe the purpose of the column_index_num argument within VLOOKUP
• Identify the number of criteria pairs that you can specify in the MAXIFS function
• Identify the function that only allows you to look up values horizontally across a row, as opposed to both across rows or down columns
• Identify in which versions of Excel the XLOOKUP function is available

Level
Basic

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Computer Software & Applications (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None