3 Way match in Excel

3 Way match in Excel

Often we are required to perform a 3 way match in excel where Excel needs to look in 3 cells to see if they all match. There are a number of ways to do this, some very complex, but we find that as a general rule, the simplest solution is the best.

NEW: Go to  VLOOKUP Explanations with downloadable exercises and detailed solution

We generally like to create an additional column (or row depending on the direction) and join the 3 (or more cells) using a CONCATENATE (click to watch how to use the CONCATENATE function). Effectively you can use this method to create a unique text field. You can include dates, numbers and text. Whatever is required to make it unique.

Now you can use a VLOOKUP or other function to search through this new field to find the unique item.