Managing Data with Microsoft® Excel

Finding Data with INDEX

Both the INDEX function and the OFFSET function return data from a subset of an array. They differ in several ways, including what it is you want to accomplish:

• It's typical to use OFFSET when you can specify several rows and columns that you want to get at. For example, you might use this

  =OFFSET(BaseCell, 0, 0, 2, 2)
  

  to get the cells in the first two rows and the first two columns of a range of cells.

• It's typical to use INDEX when you can specify a particular row or column and you want the value where they intersect. For example, this

  =INDEX(D4:E6, 3, 2)
  

  returns the contents of cell E6; that is, the third row of the second column of the range D4:E6. See Figure 2.4.

  Figure 2.4. Using INDEX in this way is similar to using ...