Match function returning #N/A error

Question

I am making a gradebook. One of the criteria is to use the MATCH function to make it so I can type in a student ID and have it return the students name, overall score and grade. I can get it to return the cell number the student's name is in, but not the name itself.

Formula that returns everything but the name is this:

=MATCH(A16,studentid,0)

When replacing studentid with student_name it returns N/A error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Further to joeu2004's response, MATCH() is not designed to return data stored in a cell. It's purpose is to return the position in which the data is found in the list. Please see this support article:

MATCH function - Office Support

Answer 2

I suggest using VLOOKUP instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJxIMBbmZY

Answer 3

Hi J_andersonthethird,

Any updates?

Regards,

Linda

Answer 4

Hi J_andersonthethird,

As Bob said that, Match function cannot return name but position. And the lookup_array part in Match function is a contiguous range of cells containing possible lookup values, an array of values or a reference to an array. For your situation, I would like to confirm the whole formula you used to get everything via student id as the lookup_array part. Some screenshot or a simple file would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Linda

Answer 5

j_andersonthethird wrote:

I can get it to return the cell number the student's name is in, but not the name itself. Formula that returns everything but the name is this:

=MATCH(A16,studentid,0)

When replacing studentid with student_name it returns N/A error.

=INDEX(student_name, MATCH(A16,studentid,0), 1)