vlookup: the duct tape of excel

VLOOKUP:THE DUCT TAPE OF EXCEL

GEORGEJMOUNT.COM

In the real world, data rarely comes

packaged up, ready to use.

Analysts can use up to thirty sources to get the data they need….

And spend the majority of their time preparing data.

Often you need to analyze data as a whole whose parts come from different sources.

Examples:• Sales volumes by salesperson

versus employee data (time with the company, date of birth, etc.)• Inventory of a store versus

square footage• Sales volume versus weather

So how do we analyze apples and oranges???

Like in engineering, most problems in Excel can be fixed with a couple of tools…

VLOOKUP, like duct tape, will join things together that shouldn’t move.

VLOOKUP will allow you lay data from many sources into one table… quickly and accurately.

Excited? Ready to rock with VLOOKUP?

Check out my Guide to VLOOKUP at georgejmount.com/vlookup/

Be sure to sign up to get more thoughts for the Excel-savvy analyst!

Oh, and the WD-40? That’s PivotTables! georgejmount.com/pivotables