VLOOKUP with multiple criterias in different columns [duplicate] - excel

Question

This question already has answers here:
Vlookup using 2 columns to reference another
(2 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I have the following Excel spreadsheet:
A B C D E
1 Products Brands Revenue Search Criterias
2 Product A Brand1 500 Criteria 1: Product C
3 Product B Brand3 800 Criteria 2: Brand 3
4 Product B Brand2 900 Revenue: 300
5 Product C Brand1 200
6 Product C Brand3 300
7 Product C Brand4 750
8 Product D Brand1 450
9 Product C Brand4 150
10
As you can see in Column A I have list of products and in Column B the corresponding brands and in Column C the revenue.
Now I want to use VLOOKUP to search for the revenue based on a product (Cell E2) and a brand (Cell E3). Therefore, I tried to go with this formula:
E4 =VLOOKUP(E2&"-"&E3,A1:C9,3,FALSE)
However, this formula gives me #NV.
What do I need to change in my formula to make it work?
Please note:
I know I could solve this issue by adding a helper column in which I combine the datas from Column A and Column B and then let the VLOOKUP run over this helper column. However, I am looking for a solution without this helper column.

Answer 1

First of all, please note that your lookup array does not have a space while your lookup value does! That will never return a match, so address that issue first.
Furthermore, I would highly recommend to not concatenate values in a multi-criteria lookup, ever! That's very error prone. Instead use boolean logic to create an array of 1's and 0's to use the powerfull combination of INDEX and MATCH. Try to get into the habit of using that combination over VLOOKUP if you are a regular user of Excel and it's worksheet functions.
Here is a small introduction to this combination of functions. And as mentioned in that post too, INDEX will come in handy much more often as you will notice in the below example when we create our return array. This will prevent the use of having to enter as an array formula through CtrlShiftEnter =)
Formula in E4:
=INDEX(C2:C9,MATCH(1,INDEX((A2:A9=E2)*(B2:B9=E3),),0))
When you actually got numeric values under Revenue you can simply use SUMIFS, as the other answer suggest.

Answer 2

I would strongly recommend using SUMIFS instead of VLOOKUP because this would make sure if you have multiple same values it will add them together:
=SUMIFS(C:C,A:A,E2,B:B,E3)
But this function will only work in newer versions of Excel if you need it for an older version of excel you need to work with SUMPRODUCT
Optional you can also use an alternative VLOOKUP which would be a combination of INDEX and MATCH. There are two options, either the array formula with the "{}" can in some cases result to wrong data, but is easy to understand:
{=INDEX(C:C,MATCH(E2&E3,A:A&B:B,0))}
This is a matricial formula so the "{}" are added by Excel when you type the formula regularly by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER
otherwise use. I would always recomend using regular formulas over matricial formulas
Quote user JvdV
Formula in E4:
=INDEX(C2:C9,MATCH(1,INDEX((A2:A9=E2)*(B2:B9=E3),),0))

Answer 3

The shortest and fastest formula for 2 criteria Lookup is using DGET()
Table layout as below :
A B C D E F
1 Products Brands Revenue Search Criterias
2 Product A Brand1 500 Products Brands Revenue
3 Product B Brand3 800 Product C Brand3
4 Product B Brand2 900
5 Product C Brand1 200
6 Product C Brand3 300
7 Product C Brand4 750
8 Product D Brand1 450
9 Product C Brand4 150
Formula in F3 :
=DGET(A1:C9,F2,D2:E3)
and, will return the desired result : 300