stripping out a list based on a smaller list

[The Grinch]

Hi All,

would really appreciate help on this one.

I have a very large list of text strings (50,000) and a small list o
text strings (300). I want to highlight all cells in the large lis
whose contents CONTAINS ANY of the strings in the small list.

any ideas?

CHEER

 

[Anders S]

One way is to use Conditional Formatting on the long list with a formula like

=SUMPRODUCT(--(B1=$K$1:$K$3))

assuming the long list starts in B1 and the short list starts in K1, adjust the references to suit.

HTH
Anders Silvén

 

[Dave Peterson]

And Chip Pearson has a bunch of techniques for working with duplicates at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/duplicat.htm