Creating the VLOOKUP Array Formula
Turning VLOOKUP into an array formula needs to be done before closing the dialog box.
Creating an array formula in Excel is done by pressing the CTRL, SHIFT, and ENTER keys on the keyboard at the same time.
The effect of pressing these keys together is to surround the function - in this case VLOOKUP - with curly braces: { } indicating that it is now an array formula .
Tutorial Steps
- With the completed dialog box still open from the previous step of this tutorial, press and hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys on the keyboard then press and release the ENTER key.
- If done correctly, the dialog box will close and a #N/A error will appear in cell E2 - the cell where we entered the VLOOKUP function.
- The #N/A error appears in cell E2 because cell D2 is blank. Cell D2 is where we told VLOOKUP to find the Lookup_value in step 3 of the tutorial. Once data is added to cell D2, the error will be replaced by information from the database.
