Comments on: How to compare two columns in Excel for matches and differences

The tutorial demonstrates a number of techniques to compare and match two or more columns in Excel with formulas, conditional formatting and the specialized wizard. Continue reading →

Comments page 14. Total comments: 551

  1. Hi
    I need to make filter for unique value that created by multi user once per month per user than we need to calculate the QTY of the unique number per user

    Example for my Question:

    transaction_date Value User_NAME
    --------------------------------------------------
    1/1/2017 1222889205 MarK
    --------------------------------------------------
    2/1/2017 1222889205 Mac
    --------------------------------------------------
    4/1/2017 1254879863 Eva
    --------------------------------------------------
    21/2/2017 1225478962 Jake
    --------------------------------------------------
    4/5/2017 1254879863 Eva
    --------------------------------------------------
    5/5/2017 1254879863 Eva
    --------------------------------------------------
    1/6/2017 1254793658 Mac
    --------------------------------------------------
    1/6/2017 1254793658 Jake
    --------------------------------------------------
    6/6/2017 1254793658 Eva
    --------------------------------------------------

    **my Solution

    Month user Count for uniqe value
    --------------------------------------------------
    jan MarK 1
    Mac 1
    Eva 1
    -----------------------------------------------
    Feb JaKe 1
    ---------------------------------------------
    May Eva 1
    ----------------------------------------------
    Jun Mac 1
    JaKe 1
    Eva 1
    ---------------------------------------------

    Appreciate your support thanks

  2. I am facing an issue of 10,000 row items contains data for visits.

    data contains same name but different start date and end date

    Shop Name Opening End
    CRUSH TRUCKING STATION 12-May-11 22-Dec-14
    SUPERIOR II FILLING STATION 11-Dec-13 14-Mar-14
    INDUS FILLING STATION 13-Dec-13 21-Feb-14
    INDUS FILLING STATION 21-Feb-14 17-Oct-14
    SUPERIOR II FILLING STATION 14-Mar-14 23-Oct-14
    INDUS FILLING STATION 17-Oct-14 25-Jan-15
    SUPERIOR II FILLING STATION 23-Oct-14 16-Jan-15
    SUPERIOR II FILLING STATION 16-Jan-15 08-May-15

    Is there any solution for above to adjust columns in start and end date in same shop name

  3. I need some help.
    I am using vlookup to draw information from sheets A and B and then compare them side by side on Sheet C. The values happen to be in time format. I need to have a formula (or a quick system) to highlight the the cells so that I can quickly spot the different in the times and then correct them. The spreadsheet that I am using is already full of useful conditional formatting and so would really like it to just appear a different colour so that it gets my attention.

    Any suggestions much appreciated

  4. Hi, I need to copy data from one cell to another on daily basis
    Example,
    A1 : =TODAY() //Changes Daily
    B1 : =SUM(B2:B10) //Changes Daily

    I need the B1 value to be copied on C1
    Next day B1 value to be copied on C2
    Next day B1 value to be copied on C3 and so on...

    Waiting for your support
    Thanks in advance

  5. HELP!

    Would you please help me?

    It is really important.

    What i want to do is this

    compare columns for any two or more cells with the same values within the same row and hightlight individual rows after matching

    I have 20 different columns that i need to compare for any two or more duplicate cells among them

    How can i do that with the simplest way?

    Thank you

  6. Hi,
    I have an sheet with columns from January to December where people make contributions on monthly basis. A person's contribution is the same through out the year.

    I would want a formula that shows if someone is contributing the same figure throughout the year or not, kind of like "True" and "False" formula but it should be checking in all the columns thus January-December and not just two columns whose formula I know is =A2=B2

    Thanks.

  7. not working the below formula in excel 2016, please guide if any changes on this?

    =IF(COUNTIFS($CU2:$CU59862,CU2, $CA2:$CA59862,CA2, $FL2:$FL59862,FL2, $DA2:$DA59862,DA2, $DV2:$DV59862,DV2) >1, "DUPLICATE ROW","")

  8. Excellent resource. I have two worksheets. one with 25,000 rows and the other with 63,000 rows and i want to find out the complete match of sheet2 to sheet 1, the ones without any match and others with at least 90% match. please how do i go about this. thank you

  9. Hello I have 10 values in Col A and 3 values in Col B. I want to highlight only values that match col A with Col B and mark others in a diff color . How do i do it?

    Col A Col B
    1 1
    2 6
    3 9
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Col A Col B
    1 1 Match
    2 No match
    3 No match
    4 No match
    5 No match
    6 6 match
    7 No match
    8 No match
    9 9 match
    10 No match

  10. Hi, kindly help me derive a proper formula for this problem. I am using two sheets Sheet 1 & Sheet 2 in excel 2013. I created a drop down value (1-15 & 1-15) in the first sheet using data validation to derive two numbers in two different cells. In the second sheet I have created variables (with 1-15 in one cell and 1-15 in another cell) to derive a result in the third column). Say, in the first sheet I have one column no. of factories (1-15) & No of Managers (1-15). In the second sheet I have created the variable; No. of Factories, No of Manager & in the third row their Operating hours:

    No of Factories: 1/2/3/4/5/....
    No of Managers: 1/2/3/4/5/....
    No of Operating hours: 8 (in case 1,1), 15 (1, 2), etc.

    Now in the first sheet I want to use the drop down values to enter what i want to know and get the result using a formula.

    Kindly help me with this.

  11. how to Compare table columns in excel
    for example
    Table -1
    Col A; Col B; Col C;
    Roll No. Std. Name Result 1 semester (total Marks)
    1 A 50
    2 B 40
    3 C 55

    Table -2
    Col A; Col B; Col C;
    Roll No. Std. Name Result 2 semester (total Marks)
    2 B 45
    4 D 60
    1 A 60
    3 C 50

    I Want to Result like that

    Table -1 Table-2
    Col A; Col B; Col C; Col D; Col E; Col F;
    Roll No. Std. Name Result S-1 Roll No. Std. Name Result S-2
    1 A 50 1 A 60
    2 B 40 2 B 45
    3 C 55 3 C 50
    4 D 60

    Could you described please how i could solve this as Table 2 match with table 1 and sort and place the record on same row
    thanks

  12. i want add the data with different uniqe item below following table
    item data
    1 4
    2 3
    1 2
    3 2
    2 3
    1 1

  13. Good day
    I`m a marine engineer.I am just creating a worksheet where if a parameter in column F is greater than a parameter in columnn I by 0.03(P4>Pd>0.03),A separate column say H has to highlight each row as Abnormal with cell bgrnd as red.Would you please help me on this
    Thanks in advance
    Allan

  14. I need help writing a formula to find matches between a column in SHEET1 and a column in SHEET2. Goal is to get "Match" inserted into Column B, SHEET1 if there is a match between Column A and Column B.

    I tried:

    =IF(A2=$SHEET2$,B2,"Match","") but this didn't work. Can someone help me out please!

    Data:

    Column A, SHEET1
    12AB1250
    12AB1251
    12AB1252

    Column A, SHEET2
    12AB1250
    12AB1251
    12AB1252
    12AB1253
    12AB1254
    12AB1255

    Thanks in advance!

    1. =IF(A2=A3,"Match","No match"

      Copy and paste above formula and A1 delete and select Column A, SHEET1 and A3 delete and select Column A, SHEET2 . it will work

  15. As a step in a bank reconciliation, I am comparing two list of $amt. I do have a unique identifier in one list but not the other, just $ values.
    I want to compare the $values and find a "unique" match. Meaning, say I have $155 twice in list 1, three times in list 2.
    Is there a way to id the match 2?
    With a unique identifier in both list, two column match with condition formatting would work fine.
    It a large volume of data, please help!

  16. Need a formula based on below criteria:
    I have two cells, A and B,
    if the difference btw A & B is less than 6 or equal to 6, "No Change"
    if greater than 6 and less than 9, "Slight Change"
    if greater than 10 "Significant Change"

    Also the formula should override the difference with positive numbers, even the B is larger than A, vice-versa

    Please help!!

  17. I would like to know how to compare a range "A1" of file names with a directory and return the date the file was last save to a each matching cell in range "B1"

  18. Excellent website, thanks.

  19. Is it possible to compare for certain values two different sheets of same Ms Excel file?

  20. Hello good evening,

    I need small help. So I need to get how many same numbers repeats in Column A that matches same value in column B. Example How many times 38692 repeats in column A and has value of $5 in column B? Can anyone help me with that please
    A B
    38770 $10.00
    38692 $5.00
    38692 $5.00
    38692 $5.00
    38692 $10.00
    38769 $10.00
    38692 $5.00
    38692 $5.00
    38692 $10.00
    $0.00
    $0.00
    38694 $10.00
    $0.00
    38694 $10.00
    $0.00

  21. I need a formula to count how many times a specific range of numbers occurs twice in a row.

    Example: how many times a number between 1 and 9 occurs at the same time in column C and D

    1, 7, 9, 14, 20, 27
    1, 3, 4, 5, 14, 21,
    2, 3, 4, 17, 22, 23
    4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 24
    16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22

    The answer is 2 times

    I thought I could use:
    =COUNTIF(C1:C379,"<=9") + COUNTIF(D1:D379,<=9")

    But it is adding the number of times the range occurs in column c to the number of times the range occurs in column D. What I need is the number of times the range occurs in column C and D within the same row, or in other words, at the same time.

    Thanks!

  22. Very helpful. Thanks so much!

  23. how to convert excel data to note pad text transpose (T). and need to add some ad some special character with the text

  24. Hello,
    I am trying to do a comparison between 2 columns for values only. In one column, the value is 13 while the other I am comparing it to is 13.0. None of the methods I have tried return a match.
    Is there a way to compare for a match in value of the two without having to reformatting the columns to match?
    Thank you in advance for any help that can be provided.

  25. Thanx. it helped me.

  26. I have some items and rates in one table, other table I need to type item name and get relevant rate to next column in same row Table1 Table2 Item. Rate. Item. Rate. A. 3. D. ? B. 4. A. ? C. 6. B. ? D. 4. E. 1. .... Z. 4.

  27. Hi ,

    How to compare two cells whether another cell contains same word,

    Location Code Description Location from part no Status
    LEAF SPRING FRONT REAR AXLE PARABOLIC SPRING FALSE

    Thanks

    1. Hello E Sivakumar,

      Please, you can use the following formula:
      =IF(A1=B1,"match", "no match")

  28. Hello,
    I have two data sets (sheets), first columns in both the sheets have data that can be matched. Based on the first columns, I want to create a new data set having the expanded data for each of the columns.

    Thanks.

  29. Hi- Thanks for your post. I have another requirement.
    I have two columns ex A and B. In col A is a list of employees and Col B is list of employees (kind of sub set of Col A), Col B can contain all the employees present in Col A, but if any employee left in this month then that employees name will be removed from Col B. Also Col B can contain new employees as well.

    So end of the month I want to run a report and show that Which all employees Of col A is present in Col B , list them in a new col C, and also Column C also should list out if any new employees names are found in column B and put that also in Column C.

    Can you help?

  30. I have 2 sheets. 1 has a column with 14 digit numbers representing products. The 2nd sheet has a column with 10 digit numbers also representing products. Product descriptions are different in each sheet. I want to verify the list of 10 digit numbers are included within the sheet with 14 digit numbers. Can you help? Thanks!

    1. Hello Jen,

      For us to be able to assist you better, please send us a small sample table with your data in Excel and include the expected result. Thank you.

  31. Thanks a lot,
    It saved me couple of hours.

  32. I have a Google spreadsheet with 50 separate titled sheets with one that I have labeled as Forms_Received. All sheets are different meetings that we have going on and I need to compare a column in all the sheets with the Forms_Received sheet and have a column in all the sheets marked with "Y" if a form was received on each of the sheets. I would prefer that the "Y" be an exact match from the column in the Forms_Received sheet, since it will have a linked document attached to the "Y". What formula should I use? If you need to see what I am talking about, please let me know.
    Thank you,

  33. I need a formula to count how many times column A has a ON and NS that represents a CU in column B. In the case below ON and NS represent a total of 3 CU's in column B

    A B
    ON CU
    BC CU
    AB CU
    ON CU
    NS CU
    NS BA

    Eg. =+COUNTIFS(QtradePartners!B3:B136,"=ON",QtradePartners!B3:B136,"=NS",QtradePartners!C3:C136,"=CU") ... THIS IS NOT WORKING and I think it makes sense that it doens't work... Anyone help?

    1. Hello Marc,

      Please, you can use the following formula:
      =COUNTIFS(A:A,"ON",B:B,"CU") + COUNTIFS(A:A,"NS",B:B,"CU")

  34. List 1 List 2
    1 a
    2 a
    3 b
    3 b
    1 a
    3 c
    1 d

    Hello, please help me in the above example. I want to check if list 1 and List 2 has same row values. Like first row is same as the fifth so row 3 and 4.

    WHat formula should I use.

    1. Hello Ashok,

      Please, you can use the following formula:
      =IF(COUNTIFS(A:A,A2,B:B,B2)< 2,"no match","match")

  35. Hello
    I have two excel sheets
    One sheets boys sheet mention name, gotra, year, qualification salary
    second sheets girls mention name, gotra, year, qualification salary
    how we can match it

  36. Hi, I have two columns.

    column A: a list of 60 different distinct computer hardware in every cell.

    Column B: over a thousand combination of not only including from 0 up to 10 computer hardware, but also have brand names in each cell.

    All I want to achieve is to display in column C what are those computer hardware A shown up in B, in the same row as in column B.

    Thank you for your time.

  37. Hi, whuch formula should I use if I want to compare 2 excel sheets. 1 has been revised and 1 has no changed.
    please help!!!! Thank you

      1. i love you.

      2. I fully comprehend, by virtue of your tutorial, as to how to compare two excel files for differences. But then I need learn how to compare the two excel files (and also the two/more columns/rows within an excel file) for matches or similar entries.
        Thanking you in anticipation.

  38. Dear,

    Need your advice.

    How to take data from two columns to another table ie. if we have two columns and having some data true and false so i need to separate true data and false data in another table

  39. Hi Guys,

    Need your advice.

    How to check duplication of two numbers in two different column, with the two number provided in different sequence order. sample as in below.

    Column A Column B Column C (result)
    1234 2341 A=B

  40. Yes its working. Thank you so much. Grateful for the support.

  41. Thanx for such an informative article over excel,still struggling to find the solution ,Pl help if possible.
    I've two columns in which one column say B having exhaustive values,while in another say column A ,some values are missing.How to ascertain either through Vlookup,Countif or If,which values are missing. Here,it is to be noted that all data in A is in column B,but vice versa is not true. Just wanted to know missing data. Pl help in getting formula for the same.Total entries in column A is less than column B(vertically) Plzz..

    1. Hello Avinash,

      If my understanding of the task is correct, you need to identify the values that are present in column B, but not in column A. If so, you can use the following formula:
      =IF(COUNTIF($A:$A, $B2)=0, "missing", "")

      Where B2 is the topmost cell with data, ignoring column headers.

      When you copy the formula down the column, the word "missing" will appear in the rows containing data in column B that do not appear anywhere in column A. To get a list of missing values, apply Excel's auto-filter, filter the formula column by "missing" and copy the filtered values in column B.

  42. Afternoon,
    I want to put a conditional format in column B.
    I have a target number in column A and input Actual in B.
    I want a conditional format in B
    if the number is same as or above target in A then "fill" the cell otherwise no fill.

    610 0 - no fill
    1525 915 - no fill
    610 0 - no fill
    610 710 - fill
    610 610 - fill
    305 0 - no fill

  43. Sorry,
    I posted before completing the question

    I want to compare likewise

    A B C
    Danta,Alex,John,Ryan Alex,Ryan,Danta,John True
    John,Alex,Ryan Alex,John,Danta False
    Michelle,Rob,Sean Michelle,Rob,Sean True

  44. Hello,

    I want to know can we compare this type cells

    Cell A

  45. Hi,
    Let say that column A has 2 cells and are as follow:
    A1 : 10
    A2 : 20
    And in column C there are 2 cells as follow:
    C1 : 10,20
    C2 : 20,10
    In cell B1 I want that it searches in A1 cell that is 10 and if the first number in column C is 10(that is C1 and not C2), it copies cell C1 in B1.

  46. Hi i currently using index and match function in excel, to auto match and index the value back, if i put a set of new data to compare with my original data.

    But however sometime a new data had a multiple result , how to i auto insert a row on the original data columns for the multiple result?

    this is my formula code : =INDEX($L:$L,MATCH($A:$A,$K:$K,0)) it could match and bring back the index value back i wanted ... but those with multiple result it only return back to the first result it show.

    regards istillanoob

  47. Hello.. I now actually trying using Index match/IF function to try to index the value from “ColE” onto “ColB” , by matching “ColA” compare with “ColD”.

    For my eg.
    Shown below “Urr” got 3 different value in “ColE” how to I match and insert the three “Urr” with the different number
    result in “ColE” onto “ColA” with the same exact result number should appear in “ColB”???
    And “colA” “Usw” data still match with “ColD” “Usw”even is not in the same row?

    something like new data replace with original data orderly, plus without deleting original data if the data don not appear in new data.

    Eg.

    ColA
    Doman
    Urr
    Usw

    ColD ColE
    Doman 1234
    Urr 12345
    Urr 12345
    Urr 12346

  48. if column A has names and column D has dates. Is there a way to highlight equal dates that belong to the same name?

    1. Hello Jonathon,

      You can create a conditional formatting rule with the following formula:

      =COUNTIFS(A:A, A1, D:D, D1)>1

  49. Somebody to help me....
    Dear all,
    I have a huge problem...
    I have two rows A and B,
    Values in column A (3,4,4,5,5,6) in column B (3,3,4,5,6,6), I wont to compare this two column
    3 with 3 nothing
    4 with 4 nothing
    4 with x 4
    5 with 5 nothing
    5 with x 5
    nad reverse (if you dont have in column A, have in column B) also to be in column C.
    If you understan (match just once number by number), if aleready match to give me value.
    Tnks a lot, to all.

  50. Data validation list A =a1:a10
    Data validation list b =b1:b10

    link cell D1

    my problem is if selected list from List A or List B cell D1 change automatically any formula or any solution

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