Compund XLOOKUP returns #VALUE error

the ranges aren't the same size for the lookup and the return ranges:

=XLOOKUP($A8,'[Sales Data by Month.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A,

            XLOOKUP(I$7,'[Sales Data by Month.xlsx]Sheet1'!$1:$1,'[Sales Data by Month.xlsx]Sheet1'!$R$2:$AF$64))

so in the second XLOOKUP the lookup range is an ENTIRE row but the return range is only columns R:AF

and even if that worked it and it returned one of those columns it would only return rows 2:64 and the first XLOOKUP is looking up on a range of an ENTIRE column.

using INDEX and XMATCH would probably work:

=INDEX('[Sales Data by Month.xlsx]Sheet1'!$R$2:$AF$64,

            XMATCH( $A8,'[Sales Data by Month.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A:$A),

            XMATCH( I$7,'[Sales Data by Month.xlsx]Sheet1'!$1:$1)   )

but if XMATCH doesn't find a value or finds a match outside the bounds of the R2:AF64 range counts that would be a problem and since you are starting at R2, would that XMATCH values be correct?  e.g. A8 in A:A will be 8th row but index of 8 in that range would be the 9th row on the sheet.