From the course: Excel: Lookup Functions in Depth

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Using the SWITCH function for formula-embedded selection

Using the SWITCH function for formula-embedded selection - Microsoft Excel Tutorial

From the course: Excel: Lookup Functions in Depth

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Using the SWITCH function for formula-embedded selection

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- [Instructor] Excel's SWITCH function is not truly a lookup function. If you were searching for it on the Formulas tab in the ribbon, you'd find it under Logical. SWITCH. But it's very similar to the CHOOSE function, and it's often used with lookup type capabilities, and its advantage, as with CHOOSE is, we don't need an external list somewhere to pick up information from. On the other hand, from time to time, it's going to be really unwieldy. Sometimes it's also compared with the IFS function. Let's first look at a simple example with XLOOKUP. We've got a list here in columns, D, E, and F. We're trying to come up with the scores and we're using, for example, in cell F2 here, the XLOOKUP function to look up the word Fair. We're looking that up over in column B, then returning the number that's next to it, which is 71. We also have the option of XLOOKUP of returning a text entry Not Found when the match doesn't work. Now, we can do this with a SWITCH function too, and if there is an…

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