Excel Toolkit / Function guides
MATCH in Excel: explanation and examples
Find an item and return its position in a range—not the item’s value. Start with one direct calculation.
These examples use the Moon Energy teaching case. All businesses and data are fictional. They are learning examples, not financial or tax advice.
Microsoft’s definition
returns the relative position of that item in the range.
Read the MATCH function reference on Microsoft Support
Three ways to understand MATCH
Transactional finance
Moon Energy’s finance team maps the site register into an invoice-processing queue.
Find the selected site’s position in the register.
| Row | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Site code | Queue site | Bill net GBP | Register position | Selection / threshold |
| 2 | S01 | S03 | 32439.68 | 3 | S02 |
| 3 | S02 | S01 | 7420 | 1 | |
| 4 | S03 | S05 | 6128.42 | 5 | |
| 5 | S04 | S02 | 3216.42 | 2 | |
| 6 | S05 | S04 | 3771.49 | 4 |
Formula: =MATCH(E2,A2:A6,0)
Result for this sample: 2
Business operations
Moon Energy’s operations team maps the site register into a maintenance-dispatch queue.
Find the selected site’s position in the register.
| Row | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Site code | Queue site | Electricity kWh | Register position | Selection / threshold |
| 2 | S01 | S03 | 143695 | 3 | S02 |
| 3 | S02 | S01 | 32000 | 1 | |
| 4 | S03 | S05 | 26234 | 5 | |
| 5 | S04 | S02 | 13234 | 2 | |
| 6 | S05 | S04 | 15712 | 4 |
Formula: =MATCH(E2,A2:A6,0)
Result for this sample: 2
Abstract
Moon Energy’s orbital controller maps station codes into docking-clearance order.
Find the selected site’s position in the register.
| Row | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Station code | Queue site | Photon cells | Register position | Selection / threshold |
| 2 | S01 | S03 | 14500 | 3 | S02 |
| 3 | S02 | S01 | 3200 | 1 | |
| 4 | S03 | S05 | 2600 | 5 | |
| 5 | S04 | S02 | 1300 | 2 | |
| 6 | S05 | S04 | 1600 | 4 |
Formula: =MATCH(E2,A2:A6,0)
Result for this sample: 2
Experiment in Formula Lab
Open MATCH in the interactive Formula Lab →
The practice engine supports a focused subset of Excel behavior. Lookups are exact-match only; it does not support all Excel functions, dates, arrays or workbook imports. Read the limits shown in Formula Lab before interpreting a result.