The other thing we want to talk about, too, before actually getting started with the functions is this idea that, sometimes, when you use a LOOKUP function, you're looking for data exactly.
So the various kinds of layouts that we see within Excel will vary somewhat. This information here would not make much sense if we structured it horizontally. And in the list over here that we just saw, this almost by definition, inherently, is going to be a vertical list. If there's any situation where you're designing a list, make it vertical rather than horizontal, it tends to work better. So without getting into the specifics of the different functions, just talking about the general idea here of how we lay out data, how we structure data. Maybe in the list on the right, we're trying to get the salary out of the other list, or the two lists have in common Social Security numbers. Two different lists in different locations, all based on the idea that they've got something in common. At other times, you might be comparing lists, and these are just portions of what could be much, much larger lists.
And sometimes, those lists are more complex, more involved. We're going to pull up other related information off to the right or below. The whole idea behind LOOKUP functions is based on what we see along the top or left side of list. A lot of tables that we use in the different formulas are either two columns, as we see over in columns G and H, or two rows, like we saw above earlier. And invariably, if you have to use this kind of data, the vertical list is preferred by most people, easier to read. But the way we lay out data on the screen is important. So as we'll see later, using the functions VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, either one of those functions can provide us with the information that we need based on the context of looking up, for example, a tax rate. Which is easier to read? Nearly everybody, when confronted with that question, would say the list in columns G and H is easier to read than the horizontal list at the top here in rows one and two. Without getting into the details of those specific functions that I mentioned, notice on this worksheet called Lookups, this is in our chapter three Lookup Functions file, we see two lists with yellow backgrounds, and they contain the same data. What a lot of them have in common is the need to refer to external data, sometimes referred to as a table array. We'll be talking specifically about the VLOOKUP function, the HLOOKUP function, also MATCH, INDEX, and a few others. Excel has a number of different LOOKUP functions.
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