VLOOKUP in SQL

The Excel version

=VLOOKUP(A2, Customers!A:C, 3, FALSE)

The SQL equivalent

This example assumes: orders(id bigint, customer_id bigint, total_amount numeric), customers(id bigint, name text, country text). It is written in PostgreSQL syntax, and your table and column names will differ from these.

SELECT o.id,
       o.total_amount,
       c.country
FROM orders o
LEFT JOIN customers c ON c.id = o.customer_id
ORDER BY o.id;

How it works

• The join condition c.id = o.customer_id is the lookup key, like the first argument of VLOOKUP.
• Selecting c.country returns the column you would have asked for with the column index number.
• LEFT JOIN keeps every order even when no customer matches, which is the case where Excel shows #N/A; here country is simply null.

Where the results differ from Excel

• VLOOKUP returns only the first match; a join returns one row per match, so duplicate customer ids multiply your orders and inflate totals.
• Excel's exact match is case-insensitive; SQL text comparison is case-sensitive in PostgreSQL unless you lower-case both sides.
• A missing match is #N/A in Excel and null in SQL; wrap it in COALESCE for a default label.

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• Add each customer's country to the orders list.
• Show orders whose customer is missing from the customers table.