Google Sheets - Perform a Lookup [3 Examples]

In most spreadsheet applications there are multiple ways to do the same thing. Google sheets is not exception as it provides you many ways to accomplish similar tasks. A common task in most spreadsheets is looking up values or records based on set criteria. There are a few functions we can use in Google Sheets to do a lookup and this video will cover three functions that can accomplish lookups: VLOOKUP, the INDEX / MATCH combination and FILTER (though the FILTER function is not technically a lookup function it can still be used to lookup records).

Perform a Lookup with the FILTER Function

One of the new Dynamic Array functions in Microsoft or Office 365 is the FILTER function and this can let you perform a lookup on a table of data. Generally when we think of filtering data it's already in a table and we're using the drop downs to filter based on some criteria. With the newer FILTER function, we can separate the source table and the output table in different parts of the worksheet tab or in separate worksheet tabs. This can even be used in scenarios where we'd want to make a dashboard to separate this. This video will cover some different examples of how FILTER can be used. Common usage (0:56) Multiple criteria (5:20) Find duplicate data (9:55) Output few adjacent columns (11:47) Output few non-adjacent columns (12:35)

Google Sheets - Create a Static Timestamp

If you're doing some project management and don't have a large budget, you can use Google Sheets as a poor man's project management tool. One concept in most project management timelines is the concept of estimated dates and actual dates. Usually you'd input the dates manually for these dates, but it would be nice to have the actual date entered "auto-magically" based on the value changes of another cell (i.e., when a percent complete is entered). But you don't want the actual dates to change after the initial value is triggered in that cell; you want the time stamp that updates only if data is entered in some cell. This video covers a workaround using iterative calculations and sort of breaks a rule in spreadsheet design where you don't want circular references. In this case, we'll have to change the Google Sheet setting to allow for it. See the video to learn how to do this.