Comments on: Dealing with VLOOKUP and GETPIVOTDATA errors

By: John Franco

John Franco — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 23:19:17 +0000

Great tip Ken,

Yes, Vlookup is a very resource-intensive function

I did a simple test…

IFERROR is 30% faster than IF+ISERROR

If your sheet takes 7 minutes to calculate using the IFERROR formula, it would take 10 minutes with the IF+ISERROR version

And when I did the suggested test by Jon Peltier, I got these results…

IFERROR (with MATCH) is 10% faster than IFERROR (with VLOOKUP)

By: Tim Otero

Tim Otero — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:02:42 +0000

@Nick, I tihink I figured this one out a few years ago, then forgot it. I knew there was an easier way, but I couldn’t quite grasp it again. Thanks for bringing it up. I’m filling that one away.

Great tip.

By: Allen

Allen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:41:46 +0000

You can write a VBA routined called IFERROR() for your 2003 deployment, which mimics the built-in version in 2007. After all upgraded to 2007, then delete the VBA function, and all will be right with the world…

By: Alternative lookup formulas - Code For Excel And Outlook Blog

Alternative lookup formulas - Code For Excel And Outlook Blog — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:54:54 +0000

[...] I was reading Dealing with VLOOKUP and GETPIVOTDATA errors by Ken Puls and noticed he wraps VLOOKUP formulas in IF statements like this: [...]

By: Ken Puls

Ken Puls — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:48:19 +0000

Ah! Okay, I get it. Sorry, just a little slow on the uptake there.

That is interesting…

By: Nick Burns

Nick Burns — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:28:01 +0000

Ken, I’m not sure where you would run into trouble.
Given:
Lookup Table = “A1:G100″ on Sheet1
Lookup Value = “A1″ on Sheet2

The formula in B1 on Sheet 2 would read:
=IF(COUNTIF(Sheet1!A1:A100,A1)>0,VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet1!A1:G100,5,FALSE),0)

if the countif fails (ie, returns 0), there’s no reason to issue the VLOOKUP as it wouldn’t find the value anyhow.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:37:37 +0000

I suspect Nick’s COUNTIF may be faster than MATCH. Someday I may even test them against each other.

By: Ken Puls

Ken Puls — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:34:49 +0000

Hi guys, Nick, your approach is a little lighter, but to me it's still almost as bulky as writing the original approach. I haven't tested it myself, but I'd be concerned that the initial result would leave me open to a later error with the VLOOKUP if they didn't return the exact same results. Peder, glad you found this useful. Sadly, the "What's New" help article in Excel 2007 doesn't actually list any of the new functions. The closest I found was this article on the Visio MVP's site. For VBA, there were some issues being tracked at VBA Express in this thread. Jon, fair point on MATCH's speed. I always seem to reach to VLOOKUP first, as old habits die hard. It would still leave you with a pretty long formula though. I wish IFERROR had been there several versions ago, as this approach is much cleaner. (Would help to speed up to use MATCH within that, rather than VLOOKUP though.)

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:20:20 +0000

You could speed up the IF(ISNA) thing if you check for an error in MATCH instead of in VLOOKUP. I don’t know what the difference in speed is, but MATCH is a lighter function than VLOOKUP.

By: Peder Schmedling

Peder Schmedling — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:19:40 +0000

Great tip, I’ll definitely use this one!

We’re going to start using Office 2007 in my department in the near future. In regards to this I’m on the lookout for some good resources about differences between Excel 2003 and 2007 and also possibly a list of new functions/functionality (like the IFERROR formula).

I’m not sure if it even exists, but I would very much like a summary of VBA pitfalls when developing in Excel 2007 from a Excel 2003 point of view. Also some perspective on what to be on the lookout for when converting old 2003 projects to 2007.

Any good recommendations on where to start reading up?