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How to look up a value and return the cell above or below in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

In Excel, we use VLOOKUP function to find a specific value from a range data, but do you know how to look up a value and then return its above or below values? Actually, you can use INDEX function to handle it.

Look up a value and return the cell above or below

Look up a value and return the cell above or below

Look up a value and return cell above

Select a blank cell that you want to place the return value, and type this formula =INDEX(A1:A8,MATCH(D1,A1:A8,0)-1,1), press Enter key to return the value. See screenshot:
Formula entered to look up a value and return cell above

Look up a value and return cell below

Select a blank cell that you want to place the return value, and type this formula =INDEX(A1:A8,MATCH(D1,A1:A8,0)+1,1), press Enter key to get the result. See screenshot:
Formula entered to look up a value and return cell below

Note: in the formulas, the first A1:A8 is the range where you look up for value, and the second A1:A8 is the range where you want to look up for the criterion, D1 is the value you look up, 1 indicate the column number you want to return.

If you want to look up for a value and return the value that is one row below the matched reference and three columns to the right, you can apply this formula =INDEX(F1:H8,MATCH(K1,F1:F8,0)+1,3).
Formula entered to return the value that is one row below the matched reference and three columns to the right

Tip. If you want to quickly lookup a value and return in another column, please try to use the Kutools for Excel’s Look for a value in list as shown in the following screenshot. It’s full function without limitation in 60 days, please download and have a free trial now.
Kutools' Formula Helper - Look for a value in list interface

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