WorksheetFunction.Match(Object, Object, Object) Method

Definition

Namespace:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel

Assembly:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll

Returns the relative position of an item in an array that matches a specified value in a specified order. Use Match instead of one of the Lookup(Object, Object, Object) functions when you need the position of an item in a range instead of the item itself.

public double Match (object Arg1, object Arg2, object Arg3);

Public Function Match (Arg1 As Object, Arg2 As Object, Optional Arg3 As Object) As Double

Parameters

Arg1

Object

Lookup_value - the value you use to find the value you want in a table.

Arg2

Object

Lookup_array - a contiguous range of cells containing possible lookup values. Lookup_array must be an array or an array reference.

Arg3

Object

Match_type - the number -1, 0, or 1. Match_type specifies how Microsoft Excel matches lookup_value with values in lookup_array.

Returns

Double

Remarks

Lookup_value is the value you want to match in lookup_array. For example, when you look up someone's number in a telephone book, you are using the person's name as the lookup value, but the telephone number is the value you want.

Lookup_value can be a value (number, text, or logical value) or a cell reference to a number, text, or logical value.

If match_type is 1, Match finds the largest value that is less than or equal to lookup_value. Lookup_array must be placed in ascending order: ...-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ..., A-Z, false, true.

If match_type is 0, Match finds the first value that is exactly equal to lookup_value. Lookup_array can be in any order.

If match_type is -1, Match finds the smallest value that is greater than or equal to lookup_value. Lookup_array must be placed in descending order: true, false, Z-A, ...2, 1, 0, -1, -2, ..., and so on.If match_type is omitted, it is assumed to be 1.

Match returns the position of the matched value within lookup_array, not the value itself. For example, MATCH("b",{"a","b","c"},0) returns 2, the relative position of "b" within the array {"a","b","c"}.

Match does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters when matching text values.

If Match is unsuccessful in finding a match, it returns the #N/A error value.

If match_type is 0 and lookup_value is text, you can use the wildcard characters, question mark (?) and asterisk (*), in lookup_value. A question mark matches any single character; an asterisk matches any sequence of characters. If you want to find an actual question mark or asterisk, type a tilde (~) before the character.