VLOOKUP in Excel is a function used to search for a value in the first column of a specified range (table or array) and return a corresponding value from another column in the same row. The "V" stands for "Vertical," indicating that it searches vertically down the first column of the range

. The syntax of VLOOKUP is:

=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup])

• lookup_value : The value you want to find.
• table_array : The range of cells containing the data, where the lookup value must be in the first column.
• col_index_num : The column number in the range from which to return the value (counted from the left).
• range_lookup : Optional; TRUE for approximate match or FALSE for exact match. If omitted, TRUE is the default.

For example, if you want to find the price of a fruit named "Kiwi" in a table where the fruit names are in the first column and prices in the third, you would use VLOOKUP to search "Kiwi" vertically in the first column and return the price from the third column

. VLOOKUP is widely used to quickly find and retrieve data from large datasets based on a key value, making data lookup efficient and straightforward