Pinpointing Product Location in Inventory
An inventory specialist needs to quickly find the exact row number of a specific product in a large inventory spreadsheet to update its stock level or details. Manually scanning thousands of rows is time-consuming and prone to errors, especially when dealing with dynamic data.
=MATCH("Mechanical Keyboard",B2:B5,0) How it works: The MATCH function searches for a specified item in a range of cells and then returns the relative position of that item within the range. In this scenario, `"Mechanical Keyboard"` is the `lookup_value`, `B2:B5` is the `lookup_array` (where the product names are), and `0` (exact match) ensures that only an identical product name is found. The result, `3`, indicates that 'Mechanical Keyboard' is the third item in the specified range.
Data Setup
| ProductID | ProductName | StockQuantity |
|---|---|---|
| P001 | Laptop Pro | 150 |
| P002 | Wireless Mouse | 300 |
| P003 | Mechanical Keyboard | 75 |
| P004 | Monitor Ultra | 120 |
Step-by-Step Guide
Identify the product name you need to locate (e.g., "Mechanical Keyboard").
Determine the range where product names are listed in your spreadsheet (e.g., B2:B5).
Enter the MATCH function: `=MATCH("Mechanical Keyboard",B2:B5,0)` into an empty cell.
The `0` as the third argument specifies an exact match, which is crucial for finding specific items.
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