Explanation

INDEX function is used to retrieve a value from a range of cells. For example – return the 6th item in the range A1:A8.

It’s most commonly used as part of the INDEX MATCH function combination which is an alternative to the beloved-yet-somewhat-dumb VLOOKUP function 🙂

Syntax

=INDEX(array, row_num, [column_num])

array – This is the range from which we’d like to retrieve the item. The range is usually a column, but can also be a row, and even a range of multiple rows and columns.

row_num – This is the relative row number from which we’ll retrieve the value.

[column_num] – This is the relative column number from which we’ll retrieve the value. This is an optional argument, meaning that if we use the INDEX function on a single column range (such as A1:A7), we don’t need to use this argument at all.

Practice INDEX function

Let’s try to see how this function works!