Difference between VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP

[Rob Dizzle]

What's the difference between HLOOKUP and VLOOKUP function in excel ? and which one is better and frequently used. i am using Excel 2003 it will be great if you could provide me examples of these functions. You can copy and paste them into a worksheet to see how they work.Thanks for your answers.

[Glenny]

The vector syntax for LOOKUP looks for a matching value in a range of cells (vertical or horizontal) and returns the value in the matching vector position of the second supplied range. It is similar to VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP; however, it is limited to a single row or column to hold results.

VLOOKUP looks for a matching value in the first column of a range of cells and returns the value from the same row in the column of the range you specify. The range can have multiple columns. LOOKUP would have only one column to choose from.

To discribe the difference, I would say LOOKUP has a single column or row range to hold the lookup values, and a single column or row range to hold the return values. The return range does not need to be adjacent to the lookup range, but can be. VLOOKUP can have multiple columns, the first being the lookup column. The other columns hold the result values and are choosen by the column parameter. The VLOOKUP fucntion uses a single multi-cell range.

Excel 2003 has excellent examples of these functions. You can copy and paste them into a worksheet to see how they work.

[Eric B]

For more details on VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP see this http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...CH062528281033
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...CH062528281033