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The Corporate Finance Institute Excel
MATCH
Get the position of an item in an
array
lookup_value lookup_array match_type
What is the MATCH Function?
The MATCH function is categorized under Lookup and Reference functions. It
looks up a value in an array and returns the position of the value within the
array. For example, if we wish to match the value 5 in the range A1:A4, which
contains values 1,5,3,8, the function will return 2 as 5 is the second item in the
range.
In financial analysis, we can use the MATCH function along with other functions
to look up and return the sum of values in a column. It is commonly used with
the INDEX function. Learn how to combine INDEX MATCH as a powerful lookup
combination.
Formula
=MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type])
The MATCH formula uses the following arguments:
1. Lookup_value (required argument) – It is the value that we want to look
up.
2. Lookup_array (required argument) – It is the data array that is to be
searched.
3. Match_type (optional argument) – It can be set to 1, 0 or -1 to return
results as given below:
Match_type Behavior
1 or omitted When the function cannot find an exact match, it will return
the position of the closest match below the lookup_value. (If
this option is used, the lookup_array must be in ascending
order).
0 When the function cannot find an exact match, it will return
an error. (If this option is used, the lookup_array does not
need to be ordered).
-1 When the function cannot find an exact match, it will return
the position of the closest match above the lookup_value. (If
this option is used, the lookup_array must be in descending
order).
How to use the MATCH Function in Excel?
To understand the uses of the MATCH function, let’s consider a few examples:
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