VLOOKUP Formulas in Microsoft Excel
The following graphic provides a breakdown for a VLOOKUP 
formula, and describes each argument. It may be helpful to 
review it before you continue reading the rest of the 
article. The V in VLOOKUP means "vertical". HLOOKUP works 
similarly, but finds data going across columns, instead of 
down rows.

 

VLOOKUP has many purposes. You can quickly create a 
pricelist that is thousands of rows long on Sheet2. On 
Sheet1, you can designate a cell into which to type a part 
number, and then have a VLOOKUP that finds the price on 
Sheet2. No scrolling, no need to use the Find feature to 
find the price for the part.

The following graphic demonstrates how to look up the 
salary of only several employees. Note that the VLOOKUP 
formula in cell D2 is shown in the formula bar.



So, what's MyLookup? That's our data range or database" 
where the Salary table lies, which is demonstrated in the 
following graphic.