Column Number Function

yidnek

Hi is there a function that can return the column number when given the column name? This would help when columns are added in sheets that have vlookups referencing them.

Chris McKay

Hi,

Interesting question! I'd suggest you get used to using INDEX & MATCH instead of VLOOKUP as it is much more powerful and gives you greater control of your data. It also eliminates the silly need VLOOKUP has for you to define a column number to return. INDEX looks anywhere you tell it, including columns to the left of the data you are matching.

Consider the VLOOKUP formula:

=VLOOKUP(search_value, lookup_table,column_num, [match_type])

against the corresponding INDEX/MATCH formula:

=INDEX([range of return values], MATCH(search_value, lookup_table, [match_type]))

They are similar, but INDEX just finds the value you're asking it to as you're essentially giving Smartsheet coordinates to find a value. This eliminates the fuss of specifics (that may be changed by users). The key differences are:

1. The [range of return values can be anywhere on any sheet, of any size and even include multiple columns
2. The data you're returning does not have to be to the right of your VLOOKUP search value and is not specified by it's column position. This means if someone changes a column name or position in the sheet you're referring to it doesn't matter, so we eliminate your original issue.
3. INDEX/MATCH is inherently faster than VLOOKUP for large datasets as it is in essence doing less work (it's not including redundant columns to lookup and return values from only 2 columns)

Unfortunately Smartsheet does not allow you to access the column names, so you're somewhat stuck if you want to find a column position using that criteria.