Spreadsheet Skills in Finance

Reference functions
Prepared by Pamela Peterson Drake

Reference or lookup functions are used to locate data in large databases. For example, if you create a database of financial data and
identify companies by their ticker symbol, you can then use the ticker symbol as the look-up value in the reference functions.
Function

Use

INDEX(array,row_num,column_num)

Finds the value in a cell that is the intersection of the specified row and
column.

HLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,row_number,range_lookup) Search a row for a match to the lookup_value, then provide information
in a specified row in that column.
VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_num,range_lookup)

Search an array for a match, then provides information in a specified

column in that same row.

MATCH(look_value,Lookup_array,match_type)

Locate the row number corresponding to a look_value

LOOKUP(lookup_value, lookup_vector, result_vector)

Locate a match to the lookup_value in an array

INDIRECT(cell references)

Convert a string into a reference. This allows you to use a functions,

such as a statistical function, without specifying the cell range but
instead allows you to calculate the cell range and then use the results of
this as cell references.

HLOOKUP v. VLOOKUP
HLOOKUP
Find column Find row
Find the Sales for the company named in A1, first using MATCH to determine the row, and then using HLOOPKUP to go to the column
and then the matching row.
A
1
2
3
4
5
6

Pear

B
C
=HLOOKUP(B3,$A$3:$C$6,C1+1,TRUE) =MATCH("Pear",$A$4:$A$6,0)

Company
Apple
Pear
Peach

Sales
$1,000
$500
$250

Net income
$30
$10
$20

VLOOKUP
Find the Sales for the company named in cell A1

1
2
3
4
5
6

A
Pear

B
=VLOOKUP($A$1,$a$3:$c$6,2,TRUE)

Company
Apple
Pear
Peach

Sales
$1,000
$500
$250

Net income
$30
$10
$20