Explaining VLOOKUP as a five year old - 

Imagine you have a list of your friends.

• In the first column, you write their names.

• In the next column, you write their favorite ice cream flavor.

Now, if you ask me: “What is Riya’s favorite ice cream?” → VLOOKUP quickly finds “Riya” in the first column and tells you her flavor from the next column.

It’s like asking a smart helper to look at a list and bring back the answer for you.

Another explanation to make it clearer - 

Think of VLOOKUP like a story book with an index.

• You tell me a word you want (like “Lion”).

• I go to the first page where the index is written.

• Then I jump to the right page and bring you the full story about the Lion.

So, VLOOKUP = Look for something in the first column → bring back matching info from the same line. 

VLOOKUP Formula - 

=VLOOKUP(what you want to find, where to look, column number, exact or close match)

Break it down:

What you want to find → like a name (e.g., "Riya").

Where to look → the whole table/list where the data is.

Column number → which column has the answer you want (1st = names, 2nd = ice cream flavor).

Exact or close match → type FALSE if you want the exact answer.

Example:
If you have names in column A and ice cream flavors in column B:

=VLOOKUP("Riya", A2:B10, 2, FALSE)
This means → Find “Riya” in column A, go to column B, and give me her flavor.