Finding EXACT matches within separate rows

[IowaTracy]

Hi,

I have a simple spreadsheet where as there are 5 columns (date, name
location, equipment, and action).

New rows are created each day as new data is collected.

After each entry (or each new day of entries) I would like to be abl
to see if any new entry matches exactly (except for the date) within
certain period of time. ie 60 days.

EX:

03/01/2006 John Kitchen Sink Re-Cleaned
03/02/2006 Tim Kitchen Sink Re-Cleaned (would not be a match)
03/03/2006 John Kitchen Sink Re-Cleaned (would be a match wit
the first entry)

Ideally I would like the results to display on another sheet/tab bu
just having the matched row(s) highlighted or change colors would b
fine.

Can anyone please help me to get started?


Thank you so much,

Trac

 

[IowaTracy]

Is this question one that is too easy and I should be able to figure ou
on my own or so hard that nobody is willing to tackle it

 

[IowaTracy]

I want to bump this up one more day to see if I can get any response.

Thank you

IowaTracy

 

[Biff]

Hi!

Do you want to go back 60 *DAYS* based on the date or 60 *ENTRIES* ?

What if there isn't 60 days worth of entries?

Do you add a new row data each day or might you add more than one row of
data each day?

Are there any empty rows within the data range?

Biff

 

[IowaTracy]

Hi Biff, thanks for the reply.

I want to go back 60 DAYS based on the date entered. There will be
anything from multiple entries on a single day to no entries on a given
day.

After the spreadsheet is 60 days old then there will always be 60 days
worth of entries.

So as mentioned above there might not be any entries one a day or there
may only be one or there may be many. There will be no empty rows. The
entries will be made as needed.

This spreadsheet is being used to track deficiencies corrected in an
inspection process so every day varies.

Bottom line is that as we enter more entries is becomes hard to look
back 60 days to see if there is a repeat occurance of the exact same
entry.

Thanks again for your help.

Tracy

 

[Biff]

Ok, just a couple more questions........

This is fairly complicated but it can be done. However, depending upon how
big you file is and other factors this may slow things down as far as
calculation times. So, how big is your file? How many rows of data will this
particular sheet have? If it's 1000's then this (what I've come up with)
won't work very well. It'd be too slow.

Would it be possible for you to send me a copy of your file so I can see
exactly what I'm dealing with? If so, my address is:

xl can help at comcast period net

Remove "can" and change the obvious.

Biff