VLOOKUP Problem

[Mike Hogan]

I am trying to find a method to do the following:
return the value in Column A in the same Row as
a lookup value in Column B.

Example: Col A contains dates in ascending order;
Col B contains numbers in random order. Find the
date corresponding to a particular number in Col B.

The problem with VLOOKUP is that the lookup value
must be in the _first_ column of the array, so you
can't return values in columns to the left of it.

Any help will be appreciated.

Mike,
Excel Beginner

 

[Harlan Grove]

I am trying to find a method to do the following:
return the value in Column A in the same Row as
a lookup value in Column B.

...

=INDEX(A1:A100,MATCH(x,B1:B100,0))

 

[Mike Hogan]

Works perfect! Thanks.
Now I just have to understand how it works. I tried
experimenting with the Index and Match functions
before, but never really understood what they did.
The descriptions are a little confusing. Using
your example and various functions for the first
parameter in the Match function, I can find the date
of any value in my array. Thanks again.