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How to vlookup find the first, 2nd or nth match value in Excel?

Supposing you have two columns with Products and quantities as below screenshot shown. For quickly finding out the quantities of the first or second banana, what would you do?

Here the vlookup function can help you deal with this problem. In this article, we will show you how to vlookup find the first, second or the nth match value with the Vlookup function in Excel.

Vlookup find the first, 2nd or nth match value in Excel with formula

Easily vlookup find the first match value in Excel with Kutools for Excel

Vlookup find the first, 2nd or nth match value in Excel

Please do as follows to find the first, 2nd or nth match value in Excel.

1. In cell D1, enter the criteria which you want to vlookup, here I enter Banana.

2. Here we will find the first match value of banana. Select a blank cell such as E2, copy and paste formula =INDEX($B$2:$B$6,MATCH(TRUE,EXACT($D$1,$A$2:$A$6),0)) into the Formula Bar, and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys simultaneously.

Note: In this formula, $B$2:$B$6 is the range of the matching values; $A$2:$A$6 is the range with all the criteria for vlookup; $D$1 is the cell containing the specified vlookup criteria.

Then you will get the first match value of banana in cell E2. With this formula, you can only get the first corresponding value based on your criteria.

To get any nth relative values, you can apply the following formula: =INDEX($B$2:$B$6,SMALL(IF($D$1=$A$2:$A$6,ROW($A$2:$A$6)-ROW($A$2)+1),1)) + Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys together, this formula will return the first matched value.

Notes:

1. To find the second match value, please change the above formula to =INDEX($B$2:$B$6,SMALL(IF($D$1=$A$2:$A$6,ROW($A$2:$A$6)-ROW($A$2)+1),2)), and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys simultaneously. See screenshot:

2. The last number in the above formula means the nth match value of the vlookup criteria. If you change it to 3, it will get the third match value, and change to n, the nth match value will be found out.

Vlookup find the first match value in Excel with Kutools for Excel

You can easily find the first match value in Excel without remembering formulas with the Look for a value in list formula formula of Kutools for Excel.

Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.

1. Select a cell for locating the first matching value (says cell E2), and then click Kutools > Formula Helper > Formula Helper. See screenshot:

3. In the Formula Helper dialog box, please configure as follows:

  • 3.1 In the Choose a formula box, find and select Look for a value in list;
    Tips: You can check the Filter box, enter certain word into the text box to filter the formula quickly.
  • 3.2 In the Table_array box, select the table which contains the first matching value values.;
  • 3.2 In the Lookup_value box, select the cell contains the criteria you will return the first value based on;
  • 3.3 In the Column box, specify the column you will return the matched value from. Or you can enter the column number into the textbox directly as you need.
  • 3.4 Click the OK button. See screenshot:

Now the corresponding cell value will be auto-populated in cell C10 based on drop-down list selection.

  If you want to have a free trial (30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

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Comments (43)
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sima
sima
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You only return first match with VLOOKUP so your article "How To Vlookup Find The First, 2nd Or Nth Match Value In Excel?" does not make any sense....
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crystal
crystal     sima
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Hi Sima,
"VLOOKUP" is a Google search term, so I used it as a keyword for the article title. The main operation of this article is to lookup values. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.
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emenson
emenson
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What if the next record on col b is a duplicate how do ignore duplicate? Let's Banana has quantities of 200 twice? Can you please help me figure out how to ignore the duplicate?
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Demco K
Demco K
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Cna anybody Explain the small function with the IF statement for me please? I don't really understand how that array works :(
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SC
SC
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The following formulas works perfect for me:
(a) or(b) =IF(H8='Raw Data'!B4,INDEX('Raw Data'!H6:H20,SMALL(IF(C18='Raw Data'!B6:B20,ROW('Raw Data'!B6:B20)-ROW('Raw Data'!B6:B20)+1),1)))

However, I have encountered a problem where there are 7 sets of the same criteria but in different columns:(1) can the above formula (a) be repeated and search in a different cells in a single formula and(2) the above formula (b) only allows up to two sets of the similar search with matched value result but when trying for the third set in the formula as showed below, Microsoft Excel appeared as "You've entered too many arguments for this function."
=<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">IF(H8='Raw Data'!J4,INDEX('Raw Data'!P6:P20,SMALL(IF(C18='Raw Data'!J6:J20,ROW('Raw Data'!J6:J20)-ROW('Raw Data'!J6:J20)+1),1))),</span>
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Cesar B
Cesar B
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What do Ctrl + Shift + Enter do?? At the beginning I didn'
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crystal
crystal     Cesar B
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Hi，An array formula needs to hit the Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys simultaneously to get the correct result.
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Shahzad Afzal
Shahzad Afzal
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I have a scenario... How do I get last price of anything for reference... Example: Banana first price was 200... While purchasing for second time; I need to display 200 in my expected price cell and then if I buy that on the day at 220, I will put this value manually as 220... Whenever next time I will buy banana; I need to display 220 from the last purchase price
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slattynan
slattynan     Shahzad Afzal
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Try =INDEX($B$2:$B$6,XMATCH(TRUE,EXACT($D$1,$A$2:$A$6),0,-1))

This is essentially reversing the search order and returning the first match using the XMATCH function.

Better late than never, hopefully helps someone :)
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Hoori
Hoori
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Perfect explanation, thanks.
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rasho
rasho
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If the first or any of the other entry's for 'banana' column B was blank cell, of which I don't require this number, what changes are required to this formula to skip blank cell in column B.
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rasho
rasho     rasho
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Sorry I am using this formula
=INDEX($B$2:$B$6,SMALL(IF($D$1=$A$2:$A$6,ROW($A$2:$A$6)-ROW($A$2)+1),1))
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rasho
rasho     rasho
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SOLVED:
=SMALL(IF(A2:A7=D1,IF(B2:B7<>"",B2:B7)),1)

If 2nd or 3rd number required exchange ),1) to 2 or 3

This formula does not require index, as it directly looks at the value in Cell
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rasho
rasho     rasho
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Correction to previous formula:
The value was reading either the lesser or greater.

Updated formula
=INDEX($B$2:$B$7,SMALL(IF($A2:$A6=$D$1,IF($B$2:$B$7<>"",ROW($A2:$A6)-ROW($A2)+1)),1))

This skips blank cell and places value of non blank cell. Replace +1 with +2 or +3 for 2nd or 3rd value
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JAntonio
JAntonio
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And if you want the last, second last, nth last just add a counter (count the number of events already hapenned) to the end and subtract it by 0,1,n respectively.

Thank you so much! I was searching for this for a long time
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crystal
crystal     JAntonio
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Good Day,
Sorry can't help you with this yet. Thank you for your comment.
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Seth
Seth
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Is it possible to find an average of the non-unique data. Or would it be possible to have a list dropdown on the cell of the various values?
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crystal
crystal     Seth
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Good Day,
Sorry can't help you with this yet. Thank you for your comment.
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