Excel: Looking up data

A while back, I showed you how I go about creating tables if average values using the UNIQUE and AVERAGEIF functions. While those tables are valuable in and of themselves, I use them to compare the pay an individual in my group gets with people in the same part of the organization.

In order to do this, I use the XLOOKUP function in its simplest form. Here’s the original table:

The basic syntax of the function is =XLOOKUP(lookup_value, lookup_array, return_array). In the example above, the lookup value is in cell A2. The lookup array is in column C, and the return array is in column D. That gives us the following formatted function: =XLOOKUP(A2,C:C,D:D).