This post explains that how to get the position of the last occurrence of a specific value in a column in excel. Is there a formula or function that finds the last match of a specific value in a column in excel 2013 or 2016? The below will guide you how to find the position of the last occurrence of a given value in a column.

Get the position (index) of Last Occurrence of a value

If you want to find the position number of the last occurrence of a specific value in a column (a single range), you can use an array formula with a combination of the MAX function, IF function, ROW function and INDEX Function.

Suppose that you want to find the position of the last occurrence of a text string as “excel” in a range C3:C7, you can try to use the following array formulas:

=MAX(IF(C3:C7="excel", ROW(C3:C7)-ROW(INDEX(C3:C7,1,1))+1))

Note: when you enter the above array formula, you must hold the Control and Shift keys down, then press Enter. Then the formula bar should add curly braces surrounding the array formula.

Let’s see how the above formula works:

=ROW(C3:C7)-ROW(INDEX(C3:C7,1,1))+1

I have talked the above formula in the previous post, it returns the relative position of all rows in the range B3:B7. The result returned by the above formula is an array.

 

=IF(C3:C7=”excel”, ROW(C3:C7)-ROW(INDEX(C3:C7,1,1))+1)

The IF function will check if each value in range B3:B7 is equal to “excel”, if TRUE, returns its relative position, otherwise, returns FALSE. As this formula is an array formula, so it must be returned an array result.

 

=MAX(IF(C3:C7=”excel”, ROW(C3:C7)-ROW(INDEX(C3:C7,1,1))+1))

The MAX function will check the array result returned by the IF function and returns the highest value in the array. So it should be the position of the last occurrence of text string “excel” in range B3:B7. It is 5.

You can also use the below two array formula to achieve the same results:

The first array formula:

=IF(COUNTIF(C3:C7,"excel")=0,"",MAX(IF(C3:C7="excel",ROW(C3:C7)-ROW(C3)+1,"")))

The COUNTIF function will count the number of cells in the range C3:C7 that equal to the string “excel”.  The First IF function will return an empty string if the result returned by the COUNTIF function is FALSE. Or returns the position number of the last occurrence of string “excel” in the range C3:C7.

The second array formula:

=MAX(IF(C3:C7="excel", ROW(C3:C7)-MIN(ROW(C3:C7))+1))

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