How to Use VLOOKUP to Compare Two Lists

In this VLOOKUP tutorial, we look at how to use the VLOOKUP function to compare two lists or columns of data in Excel.

If you want to save yourself a huge amount of time in Excel when reconciling data, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to use VLOOKUP to compare two lists or columns of data.

For example, maybe you are an accountant who keeps a record of all invoices generated by a client. The client also keeps their own lists of invoices. At the end of the year, the client sends their invoice log to their accountant for reconciliation.

In this scenario, the accountant could print out both lists and spend time with a big yellow highlighter, marking invoices that are missing from the client log. A more efficient approach would be to use VLOOKUP to run a comparison.

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[songedeau]

Been trying to figure this out for YEARS. It just clicked! Thank you for making this very clear.

[il_Presepe]

This was stellar! Clear. Detailed. To the point. Thank you very much for making and sharing this video.

[LC-ogby]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for making a potentially complicated process clear and easy to follow. I’ll be watching again.

[HKRotich]

Brilliant!! I'm an Accountant, tracing missing invoices from Revenue Authority was my biggest problem.

[fivetimesyo]

Oh my goodness! You are lifesavers! Wonderful narrator and brilliant process. Thank you so much.

[ibrahimahmad]

I have been watching your videos, for 3 days
And there's no words to be described,
You're just amazing, Thank you!

[mimi]

Happy to have opened this post as this helps a lot as i 'm just new in my new role at the office and i need a lot of reporting/comparing cases to do! This is much appreciated!❤

[MarioMarioD]

in addition you can use the function 'ifna(function, return value when na)' - or 'iferror(function, return value when error)' which will also cover div/0 etc. also useful if you rather want to leave the cell empty

[beyobeya]

I had similar experience last year wherein I needed to compare a list of 400+ tickets our team has against a list from our Finance team. I did the same process (VLOOKUP, IFERROR, and Conditional Formatting) which was great but I noticed that some items can be in file A but not in file B, or vice versa. That vice versa thing was a headache for me. Looking back at the situation, I think I may just did an overthinking and that I could have just done the same process in both directions.

[labeed]

I usually use "IFERROR" function for that, but "ISNA" looks helpful too, and it's another tool to use... always good to know more than one way to handle things. Thank you for this informative tutorial!

[johnwainaina]

Five star explanation of vlookup functions and conditional formatting. Great.

[rubenvargas]

This is the most comprehensive video explaining what to do. Thank you so much.

[sumanrokkala]

nicely explained and I could able to implement easily. Thank you.

[jokorah]

Very clearly explained. the video covered all that was required. Thank you so much!!

[RobertTheTexan]

Thanks for the VLOOKUP life preserver. You are so appreciated!

[omarsanchez]

This helped me a lot in my accounting job. Issues with operations team backdating job numbers without letting accounting know. Therfore running this report using v look up helped call them out

[VP-ypip]

This is really helpful. Now I’m able to compare my reports more effectively.

[believerinyhvh]

Love the explanation but do you have a spread sheet so I can try the formula as you explain?

[adinamohamed]

Thank you so much for the very easy guide. The explanation was clear, precise and step by step. Looking forward for more videos.