Combining INDEX and MATCH

You now know two halves of a lookup. MATCH finds where a value is, and INDEX returns the value at a position.

Combine them and you get a complete lookup: MATCH locates the row, then INDEX pulls the data from that row in any column you choose.

The pattern is simple once you see it: put MATCH inside INDEX, where the row number normally goes.

Here is the shape you will use again and again:

=INDEX(return_range, MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_range, 0))

Read it inside-out. MATCH runs first and returns a position number. That number then becomes the row_num for INDEX, which returns the value from your return range.

The return range and the lookup range usually have the same number of rows, so a position in one lines up with the other.