Applying Vlookup to Manage Students' Records
Microsoft Excel is the teacher’s option for ensuring an organized student records management system. This is true for teachers who do not have enough background to use database software for easy querying and reporting system.
Microsoft Excel is designed to ensure the easy use of spreadsheets with the tools, functions and formulas useful for different applications. If you are one of those who would want to explore the different functionalities offered by Microsoft Excel, and you are interested to use it for students’ records, you will find that the Vlookup is very useful to create a lookup or reference table for the grade descriptions. First, you must have the grades and the computations ready in their respective columns. If you already have the final rating, which can be a numeric value and the corresponding mark, you can assign another column for the corresponding description. Thus, if the mark is E, you need to look for a table where the system will automatically assign Excellent opposite the E mark. All you have to do is use a Vlookup instruction to get the description from a reference table.
This table can be placed in the same spreadsheet or in another spreadsheet in the same workbook. All you have to do is to specify the range later on when the Vlookup function is called. Vlookup accepts four entries. The formula starts with the Vlookup command followed by a set of parentheses with four parameters. The first one is the specific cell where the grade code is located followed by the range of cells where the reference table is stored. This will be in the same format as when you use the Sum or Average functions. The range of cells starts with the beginning cell of the first column, a colon (:) and the ending cell of the second column. The first column contains the code and the second column contains the description. You have to select the entire table so that Microsoft Excel will search and see which description matches the code.
The third parameter is the column number of the description. It normally is set as the second column. Thus, the third entry is the number 2. The last parameter accepts either a TRUE or FALSE value. A FALSE value means that you want an exact match of the code and not just an approximation. Once the information for the four parameters is entered, you simply need to press Enter and you will have the equivalent grade description for the specific row. To copy, you just have to do the normal copy or drag method to let the same formula apply for the other rows. The process is very easy. The use of Vlookup is not a complicated process. You will find it very useful not only for students’ records but for other purposes as well. When you are familiar with the use of Vlookup, it will be like using a common formula likeSum or Average. Even if you do not manually enter the parameters, you can use the wizard to enter the details needed. You can start using the function and enjoy having a records system that can be compared to using complex database applications software.
