The VLOOKUP function is widely used to retrieve information from a range of data. Although that function works great, most of the time, it does have some limitations.
This article gives a great summary of when to use INDEX/MATCH vs the VLOOKUP function. https://excelzoom.com/3109-2/
Of course, soon in Office 365, this will all go away with the XLOOKUP function
I Teach Accounting Information Systems 