The information that Excel found the value we were looking up isn’t really necessary. We locate all the names in column B in column A, but one. In our example, the two lists are sorted differently. Like our FALSE result above, VLookUp returns #N/A, telling us the thing we’re looking up is “not available.” The “where” or Table Array field should be expressed as an Absolute Cell Reference ($A$1) or a named range so it doesn’t “travel” as we copy our formula down the list. And, we want Excel to tell us if it can’t find it, we tell it not to return something close to our value (range), but our value exactly. The which column is the same column we’re looking it up in, so 1. So, the “what” is the value we want to look up. In our case, we’re only comparing two columns, one in each of two separate lists. What do you want Excel to do if it can’t find it?.Which column do you want Excel to return if it finds it?.The syntax of a VLookUp formula can be thought of in this way: Let’s see how we can use VLookUp to do this for us, faster. Otherwise you might highlight it or circle it if it was not found in the other list. If you find it, you might check it off or cross it off one of the lists, meaning it was found. With the other finger, you’re moving down the list of likely values with the expectation that you’ll find it. You have a value from one list that you’re pointing to with one finger. Think about what you do manually to compare two lists you may have printed out. This can be done across worksheets or even workbooks! Method Two: VLookUpĭon’t run away! Even if you’ve never worked with a VLookUp before, this method is a good one to learn it on. #Compare two columns in excel to find matches how to#In the sample workbook, with any value in column C selected, click on the Conditional Formatting button on the Home tab and choose Manage Rules to see how to highlight a whole row based on the value in one column. To see just your FALSE values, you can filter or apply Conditional Formatting to highlight the false ones. Excel says “No it’s not!” by returning the value FALSE. So, these appear as FALSE in the third column where the formula attempts to state that the value in column B is equal to the value in column C. In our example, we see that Ali Mazzurah’s name has a missing h at the end, and Kathleen Kelly’s name appears with her middle initial V. If they are, Excel returns the value TRUE. If they are not equal, Excel returns the value FALSE. If you have two lists that should be identical, but you suspect they might not be, you can put in a simple formula that sets one cell equal to another. Note: All values will appear highlighted on the This Equals That Worksheet, initially. Now, to check the rows for all the other columns, I can hold down my Ctrl key and highlight the next pair of columns and hit the F4 key and it will continue to highlight the cells for those that are different.By Melissa Esquibel Categories: Conditional Formatting, Excel®, VLOOKUP Tags: Comparing Columns in Excelĭid you ever squint at two columns of data and examine them row by row to compare the values? Excel can do all that hard work for you in three different ways.ĭownload CompareColumnsinExcel.xlsx to follow along. In this case it highlighted cell B7 where "moulding" was spelled incorrectly, and B9 where the description was totally different. Now when I click on OK, it will highlight the cells in column B that are different than those in column K: Then I'll use my keyboard to enter the following keystrokes: To start, we'll highlight the two description columns, which are columns B & K: Now, with this process you can only compare two columns of data at a time, but once you've compared the first set of columns, the rest is quite easy. I can painstakingly go through each line to try to find the differences, or I can solicit Excel's help through the "Go To Special" command. Here I have two sets of data that appear to be the same:īut when I scroll down to the bottom I can see that the totals are slightly different: #Compare two columns in excel to find matches download#If you get a preview, look for the download arrow in the upper right hand corner. You can download the file here and follow along. We'll use the Go To Special command to help us highlight those differences. In this tutorial we are going to compare two data ranges that were supposed to be exact, but have some minor differences.
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