in an Excel database, comparaison between two columns with "almost"the same names => how to search i

[urdiel.annevalerie]

Hi
I'm working on database, trying to find out how to compare my two list of company names.
1. I used a vlookup to identify the perfect matches
2. now I have the non perfect matches as initial data, and I would like to compare the list with my database.
Is it possible to make a vlookup or other function which will search for a part of the text (partial match)?

Ex:
List of names per cell:
A1 XXXX
A2 YYYY
A3 ZZZZ
and 100 others rows

And:
B1 xxx
B2 YYYY
B3 ZZZZZ
and 100 other rows

Can I end up with these cells identified as a partial match? Is there a function to search by the 3 first letters?

Thank you!!

 

[Claus Busch]

Hi,

Am Fri, 24 Oct 2014 04:59:49 -0700 (PDT) schrieb
(e-mail address removed):

I'm working on database, trying to find out how to compare my two list of company names.
1. I used a vlookup to identify the perfect matches
2. now I have the non perfect matches as initial data, and I would like to compare the list with my database.
Is it possible to make a vlookup or other function which will search for a part of the text (partial match)?

try:

=MATCH(LEFT(A1,3)&"*"&LEFT(B1,3)&"*",$A$1:$A$100&$B$1:$B$100,0)
or
=MATCH("XXX"&"*"&"xxx"&"*",$A$1:$A$100&$B$1:$B$100,0)

and insert both array formulas with CTRL+Shift+Enter


Regards
Claus B.