📊 *Excel Lookup Functions Explained with Examples!* 🔍 1️⃣ *VLOOKUP* (Vertical Lookup) ➡️ Looks *down a column* to find a value and returns data from a column to the right. *Scenario:* You have a product list vertically with prices, and you want to find the price of a specific product. | Product | Price | Stock | |---------|--------|-------| | Apple | 50 | 100 | | Banana | 20 | 200 | | Orange | 30 | 150 | *Formula:* `=VLOOKUP("Banana", A2:C4, 2, FALSE)` Returns *20* (price of Banana) 2️⃣ *HLOOKUP* (Horizontal Lookup) ➡️ Looks *across a row* to find a value and returns data from a row below. *Scenario:* You have sales data arranged horizontally for months, and you want to find sales in a specific month. | Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | |---------|-----|-----|------| | Sales | 100 | 150 | 130 | *Formula:* `=HLOOKUP("Feb", A1:D2, 2, FALSE)` Returns *150* (sales in February) 3️⃣ *XLOOKUP* (The Flexible Lookup) ➡️ Searches vertically or horizontally, can look left or right, and returns exact or approximate matches. *Scenario 1:* Same product-price table as VLOOKUP, but you want to look *left* or handle missing data easily. *Formula:* `=XLOOKUP("Banana", A2:A4, B2:B4, "Not Found")` Returns *20* *Scenario 2:* Searching horizontally like HLOOKUP: `=XLOOKUP("Feb", A1:D1, A2:D2, "Not Found")` Returns *150* When to Use Which? - Use *VLOOKUP* if your data is vertical and you want to find a value in a column to the right. - Use *HLOOKUP* if your data is horizontal and you want to find a value in a row below. - Use *XLOOKUP* if you want a more powerful, flexible function that works both ways, handles errors, and lets you search anywhere. 💬 *Tap ❤️ for more!”*