Should Be An Easy VLookup, Running Into Issue

[bobcobb]

Hey, I haven't had to break out the Excel skills in awhile so I apologize for a very noob question around VLOOKUP.

I have a new sheet I am working on. The data I will be pulling from will be a new tab called BIRTHDAYS.

On the BIRTHDAYS tab I am looking for David's birthday. The name David is in Column A, and his Birthday is in Column D.

I don't know if I am running into issues because the birthday is not in Column A, but can anyone assist here? Thanks!

 

[dreid1011]

Should work with something like:

=VLOOKUP(A2,BIRTHDAYS!$A$2:$D$20,4)

Where A2 is the column containing the names on the sheet you are populating with the birthday. Though VLOOKUP works best if the lookup table is sorted alphabetically. Since you are on 365, you can use XLOOKUP instead:

=XLOOKUP(A2,BIRTHDAYS!$A$2:$A$20,BIRTHDAYS!$D$2:$D$20)

 

[bobcobb]

Thanks, it ended up being 4th alphabetically so I just changed it to A4. Is there a way to include "David" in the function, I am assuming this will be a lot longer.

 

[dreid1011]

Thanks, it ended up being 4th alphabetically so I just changed it to A4. Is there a way to include "David" in the function, I am assuming this will be a lot longer.

Only looking up "David" ? Is there not a list of names you would want to use to look up the birthday of each person? Could you provide some sample data?

 

[Asbestos_Jen]

I used VLOOKUP, as I'm on an older version of Excel, but the same would work with XLOOKUP as @dreid1011 suggested.

​

Book1
	A	B
1	Pick Name	DOB
2	David	24-Oct-1972
Sheet1

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
B2	B2	=VLOOKUP($A$2,BIRTHDAYS!$A$1:$D$26,4)

Named Ranges
Name	Refers To	Cells
DOB	=BIRTHDAYS!$D$2:$D$26	B2
FirstName	=BIRTHDAYS!$A$2:$A$26	B2

Cells with Data Validation
Cell	Allow	Criteria
A2	List	=FirstName

Book1
	A	B	C	D
1	FirstName			DOB
2	Alice			7-Aug-2017
3	Bob			23-Jun-1973
4	Cathy			25-Sep-1999
5	David			24-Oct-1972
6	Ernest			15-Apr-1984
7	Fred			24-Apr-2017
8	Gina			12-Jul-2016
9	Harriet			24-Sep-2021
10	Igor			2-Aug-1974
11	Jack			26-Jun-2002
12	Kacey			6-Aug-2005
13	Lloyd			18-Nov-1973
14	Max			12-Oct-2005
15	Nick			4-Dec-2014
16	Opal			17-Mar-2001
17	Penny			31-Oct-1977
18	Quinn			23-May-1998
19	Rosie			12-Dec-1981
20	Steve			9-Aug-2011
21	Ted			11-Nov-2006
22	Ursula			28-Nov-1991
23	Victor			28-Apr-2015
24	Xavier			27-Jan-1997
25	Yvonne			22-Dec-2004
26	Zack			15-Jun-2006
BIRTHDAYS