How to VLOOKUP the lowest value and return adjacent cell in Excel?

If you have a range of data, and you want to find the lowest value in the column A, and then return its adjacent cell in column B as below screenshot shown, how could you solve it quickly instead of finding it one by one? The VLOOKUP function is very powerful to solve this problem easily, and now I will talk about using VLOOKUP to find the lowest value and return adjacent cell in Excel.
VLOOKUP the lowest value and return adjacent cell
INDEX the lowest value and return adjacent cell

VLOOKUP the lowest value and return adjacent cell

Here I tell you a VLOOKUP formula to find the lowest value and return the adjacent cell.

Select a cell you want to put the result, and type this formula =VLOOKUP(MIN($A$2:$A$8), $A$2:$B$8, 2, 0), then press Enter key, and then you will get the adjacent cell to the lowest value.

Note:

1. A2: A8 is the range that you want to find the lowest value, A2: B8 is the range of the data.

2. With VLOOKUP function, you only can return the adjacent cell in the right column.

3. If the lowest values are duplicate in the column you want to find for lowest values, this formula will return the adjacent cell of first lowest value.

INDEX the lowest value and return adjacent cell

To find the lowest value and return adjacent cell with VLOOKUP has some limitations, now I introduce INDEX function to solve this problem.

Select a cell you want to get the adjacent cell to the lowest value, and type this formula =INDEX(A2:A8,MATCH(MIN(B2:B8),B2:B8,0)), then press Enter key. See screenshot:

Note:

1. A2: A8 is the range that including the cell you want to return, B2: B8 is the range including the lowest value you want to find.

2. This formula can return the adjacent cell in right or left column.

3. This formula will return the adjacent cell of first lowest value, if lowest values are duplicate in the specific column.

If you want to use VLOOKUP to find the highest value and return the adjacent cell, go to this article for more detail How to find the highest value and return adjacent cell value in Excel?