What does VLOOKUP do in Excel?

VLOOKUP is a powerful function in Excel used to search for a specific value in one column and return a corresponding value from another column in the same row. This is particularly useful for retrieving data from larger tables where you want to extract specific details based on a known identifier.

For instance, if you have a table of product information where the first column contains product IDs and other columns contain names, prices, or descriptions, you can use VLOOKUP to find the price of a product by inputting its ID. The function looks for the product ID in the first column of the table and retrieves the price from the specified column, making data management and analysis much more efficient.

Understanding how VLOOKUP works is essential for effective use of spreadsheets in tasks that involve handling large datasets, allowing users to easily find and correlate related information.