From the course: Excel 2016: Advanced Formulas and Functions

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Locating data with the MATCH function

Locating data with the MATCH function

From the course: Excel 2016: Advanced Formulas and Functions

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Locating data with the MATCH function

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- Imagine that you've got three Social Security numbers, ID-type numbers, and you're trying to see if they exist in another list. Let's just focus on the first one. We want to see if this Social Security number exists in the other list. It's important to note anytime you're making comparisons with Social Security numbers, make sure that both types of entries have the same layout. As I click this cell and look in the formula bar, I see no dashes. How about the other list? Same thing over there. We're in good shape. If these are actual dashes, get rid of them, and possibly apply the format so they look like they have dashes. People overlook this at times. By the way, if you right-click here and go to Format Cells, you'll see that the format being used here is a Special, Social Security Number format that displays dashes, but they're not actually contained in the data. Let's see if we have a match here. What if we tried to use VLOOKUP? Could we use that? Well, possibly, but the MATCH…

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