Compare list in excel

Hay Paula, can you compare lists in Excel?

or

What is the best way to compare two sets of data in Excel?

Very often there is a requirement in Excel to compare two lists, or two data sets to find missing or matching items.   As this is Excel, there are always more than one way to do things, including comparing data.  From formulas and Conditional Formatting to Power Query.  In this article we are going to look at a number ways to compare two lists in Excel and we will also look at comparing entire rows of a data set.

Maybe your preferred way is not included below.  If not why don’t you drop a comment below and share with us how you like to compare two lists or datasets in Excel.  I look forward to reading your comments.

We wish to compare List 1 with List 2. 

Contents

Quick Conditional Formatting to compare two columns of data

Clearing the Conditional Formatting

Match data in Excel using the MATCH function

Compare 2 lists in Excel 365 with MATCH or XMATCH as a Dynamic Array function

MATCH and Dynamic arrays to compare 2 lists

XMATCH Excel 365 to compare two lists

Tables – Comparing lists in Excel where the ranges sizes might change

Highlight differences in Lists using Custom Conditional Formatting

Copy formula to Custom Conditional Formatting

Other Formulas used to compare two lists in Excel

VLOOKUP to compare two lists in Excel

XLOOKUP to compare two lists in Excel

COUNTIF to compare two lists in Excel

How to compare 2 data sets in Excel

Comparing lists or datasets using Power Query

Quick Conditional Formatting to compare two columns of data

Conditional formatting will allow you to highlight a cells or range based on predefined criteria.  The quickest and simplest way to visually compare these two columns quickly is to use the predefined highlight duplicate value rule.

Start by selecting the two columns of data. 

From the Home tab, select the Conditional Formatting drop down.  Then select Highlight Cells Rules. Next select Duplicate values.

A Duplicate Values settings box will open where you can define the formatting and select between Duplicate or Unique values.

By Selecting Duplicate, all reoccurring entries will be set to the selected formatting.  Now you can quickly see the items in List 1 that are in List 2 as these are the formatted items.  You can also quickly see the items in list 2 that are not in list 1 as these do not have formatting applied.

However, you can also format the Unique items.  This can be achieved by selecting Unique from the Duplicate Values setup box.

In this case, we have applied two different conditional formats.  The red indicating the duplicates and the green indicating the unique items.

Note, I did not just take the cells with data, I grabbed all of columns A to C.  Column B has no data, so it cannot affect the results. However, these cells do contain the conditional formatting applied so it would be better practice to only select the cells you need.

Clearing the Conditional Formatting

To clear all conditional formatting, first select the cell, or range. Then select the conditional formatting drop down on the Home ribbon.  Next select Clear Rules.  Finally Select Clear Rules from Selected Cells.

If you have more than one conditional formatting applied at once and you only want to remove one of these, select Manage Rules from the conditional formatting drop down. Select the rule you want to delete and then select Delete Rule.

By pressing OK, the rule will removed from the Rules Manager and the cells will no longer contain the formatting.

So that is the most basic way you can compare two lists in Excel.  Its quick, its simple and it is effective.  You can also apply conditional formatting based on formulas, which we will look at later in this article.

Match data in Excel using the MATCH function

There are many lookup formulas that you can use to compare two ranges or lists in Excel.  The first we will look at is the MATCH function.

The MATCH function returns the relative position in a list.  A number based on its position, if found, in the lookup array.

The syntax for MATCH is

=MATCH (lookup value, Lookup array, Match type)

Where lookup value is the value you want to find a match for.  Lookup array is the list in which you are looking for a match. And Match type allows you to select between an exact or approximate match.

We want to write a match formula to see if the items in List 2 are in List 1.

In cell E3 we can enter the formula

=MATCH(C2, $A$2:$A$21,0)

By filling this formula down, for the values where Excel finds a match, the position of that match will be returned.  Where there is no match the return value will be an #N/A.

Very often, the relative position or the #N/A is of no value to us and we need to convert these values into true or false.  To do this we can easily expand on our Match formula using a logical function.  As Match returns a number, we can use the ISNUMBER function

=ISNUMBER(MATCH(C2, $A$2:$A$21,0))

Compare 2 lists in Excel 365 with MATCH or XMATCH as a Dynamic Array function

If you are using Excel 365 you have further alternatives when using MATCH to compare lists or data.  As Excel 365 thinks in arrays, we can now pass an array as the lookup value of MATCH and our results will spill for us.  This removes the need to copy the formula down and with only 1 formula, your spreadsheet will be less prone to errors and more compact.

MATCH and Dynamic arrays to compare 2 lists

If you are not yet familiar with Dynamic Arrays, I would suggest you have a read of this article: Excel Dynamic Arrays – A new way to model your Excel Spreadsheets: to get a better understand on how they work and spill ranges.

The only change to the match formula is instead of selecting cell C2 as our lookup value we will select the range C2:12

=ISNUMBER(MATCH (C2:C12,$A$2:$A$21,0))

 As you can see, the one formula spills the results down column E.

XMATCH Excel 365 to compare two lists

Excel 365 also introduces the new function XMATCH.  Just like the MATCH function XMATCH returns a relative position in a list. Now you are familiar XLOOKUP, which replaces the old VLOOKUP function, you know XLOOKUP comes with additional power.  This come in the form of new conditions in the formula syntax such as search mode and match types.  Well, XMATCH also as this extra power over its predecessor MATCH.

The syntax for XMATCH is

XMATCH (Lookup Value, Lookup Array, [Match Mode],[Search Mode])

Where

Lookup Value is the value you are looking to find the relative position

Lookup Array is the row or column that contains the Lookup Value

Match mode is optional.  Unlike the old MATCH function, the default is an exact match.  You can also select between

1. Exact match or next smallest
2. Exact match or next largest
3. Wildcard match

Search mode is also optional.  The default (and only option in the old MATCH function) is to look from the top down.  You can also select last to first and binary searches.  If you are working with binary searches. The wildcard match option does not work.

With XMATCH we can use either Dynamic arrays or cell references to create the formula, just like we have looked at with MATCH.  For this example, we will use Dynamic Arrays.  The formula is very similar to what we used with MATCH; except we do not have to select 0 for an exact match as in XMATCH this is the default setting.   Let us mix things up a little this time a look at finding items in list 2 not in list one.

In this case we can use the formula

=NOT(ISNUMBER(XMATCH(C2:C12,A2:A21)))

Where not will turn trues into false and false into trues.

Tables – Comparing lists in Excel where the ranges sizes might change

In each of the formulas we have looked at so far, we have selected a range of cells in our Match functions that is not dynamic.  That means if we add new data to one of the lists, we have a manual step to update our formula to include the new data.

To convert the lists to tables, select one of the lists and press CTRL.  This is the keyboard shortcut to convert to a table.  If you selected the header in the range of cells, ensure you tick the box to confirm your table has headers.

Tables by their nature use structured naming.  Therefore, when you are writing a formula and you select a column from a table, it will not show cell references, but the column name.

Looking at our previous formula using XMATCH to find items in list 2 not in list 1, we can re-write this function now using our table references

=NOT (ISNUMBER(XMATCH(list2[List 2],list1[List 1])))

Now, as we have used tables, if we add a new row to either of the tables, our spill range will also increase to include the new data.

Highlight differences in Lists using Custom Conditional Formatting

Earlier in this article we looked at a very quick way of comparing these two lists using a predefined rule for duplicates.  We can however also use Custom Conditional Formatting.  If you are not familiar with Custom Conditional Formatting, I would suggest you check out this article: Excel Dynamic Conditional Formatting Tricks: 

We need to look at two different approaches here to highlighting differences.  When we are not using tables and we have created a true/false formula to identify the differences, we can take a copy of the formula and add this to our Custom formatting.  However, with Tables we need to force the use of cell references.

Copy formula to Custom Conditional Formatting

Start by taking a copy of the formula.  As we have tested the formula in the spreadsheet, we can see that it works before we use it in conditional formatting.  This is best practice as very often with relative and absolute cell references it can be difficult to get the formula correct.

Select the cells that you want to apply the custom formatting to. Then from the Home ribbon select the conditional formatting drop down and select New Rule

The New Formatting Rule set up box will open and select Use Formula to determine which cells to format.  Then paste in the formula and set the formatting type

This will result in all cells that are in both lists being formatted to your chosen format.

Keep in mind that we selected a range of cells to apply this conditional formatting and it is not dynamic.  Should we use tables, this would update without the need to change anything!

Other Formulas used to compare two lists in Excel

There are many formulas you can use to compare two lists in Excel.  We have already looked at MATCH and XMATCH, but now we are going to look at a few more.  Any of the lookup functions will really work along with some others!

VLOOKUP to compare two lists in Excel

If you are not familiar with VLOOKUP, you can read about it here.  Simply put VLOOKUP will return a corresponding value from a cell, if there is no corresponding value an #N/A error will be returned.  In our example we are working with text.  So, we can carry out a VLOOKUP and test to see if it returns text.  If we were using numbers then we could replace ISTEXT with ISNUMBER.

We could use the function =ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(C2, $A$2:$A$21,1,FALSE))

Or if we were using Dynamic arrays in Excel 365, we could use the function

=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP (C2:C12,$A$2:$A$21,1,FALSE))

XLOOKUP to compare two lists in Excel

XLOOKUP was introduced in Excel 365 and you can find out more about it here.  Very much like VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP will return a corresponding value from a cell, and you can define a result if the value is not found.  Using Dynamic arrays, the function would be

=ISTEXT(XLOOKUP (C2:C12,A2:A21,A2:A21))

COUNTIF to compare two lists in Excel

The COUNTIF function will count the number of times a value, or text is contained within a range.  If the value is not found, 0 is returned.  We can combine this with an IF statement to return our true and false values.

=IF(COUNTIF (A2:A21,C2:C12)<>0,”True”, “False”)

How to compare 2 data sets in Excel

Comparing two lists is easy enough and we have looked now at several ways to do this.  But comparing two data sets can be a little more difficult.

Let us look at an example.  We have two tables of data, each containing the same column headers.  Looking at the image, we can see matching these two tables would require looking at more than one column.

When you need to look at more than one column, the solution would be to create a composite column combining the data into one column.  This will create a unique column for each row which we can then use as the matching column

In this example we could combine the Name and DoB to give each table a unique identifier

There are many ways to join contents of a cell, in this case we will do a simple concatenate.  As we are using tables, the formula will shoe the table naming format.

=[@Name] &”-“&[@DoB]

Repeat the steps on the second table.

Now we can use any of the examples above to match these two new columns of data.  Where they match, we know they match the entire row.

Comparing lists or datasets using Power Query

You can also compare lists and datasets using Excels Power Query.  By connecting to the tables and then merging the tables, using different join types we can compare both lists.

In this video you will learn how to compare or reconcile two different data sets using Excels Power query

There is a data set to go along with this video and practice along which you can grab from this article.

However very often you will have datasets where there is no matching column and we need to create a column to carry out a reconciliation between two different lists or two different data sources.  In this video you will learn how to create a matching column using power query so you can then compare the data.

A Ridiculously easy and fun way to compare 2 lists

1. Select cells in both lists (select first list, then hold CTRL key and then select the second)
2. Go to Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values.
3. Press ok.
4. There is nothing do here. Go out and play!

How do you compare two lists in Excel to see what is missing?

Method 1: Compare Two Columns to Find Missing Value by Conditional Formatting. Step 1: Select List A and List B. Step 2: Click Home in ribbon, click Conditional Formatting in Styles group. Step 3: In Conditional Formatting dropdown list, select Highlight Cells Rules->Duplicate Values.

How do I compare two sets of data in Excel?

Compare 2 Excel workbooks

1. Open the workbooks you want to compare.
2. Go to the View tab, Window group, and click the View Side by Side button. That’s it!

What is the best way to compare two lists in Excel?

How to Compare Two Lists in Excel? (Top 6 Methods)

1. Method 1: Compare Two Lists Using Equal Sign Operator.
2. Method 2: Match Data by Using Row Difference Technique.
3. Method 3: Match Row Difference by Using IF Condition.
4. Method 4: Match Data Even If There is a Row Difference.

How do you compare data sets?

When you compare two or more data sets, focus on four features:

• Center. Graphically, the center of a distribution is the point where about half of the observations are on either side.
• Spread. The spread of a distribution refers to the variability of the data.
• Shape.
• Unusual features.

What is Vlookup in Excel?

VLOOKUP stands for ‘Vertical Lookup’. It is a function that makes Excel search for a certain value in a column (the so called ‘table array’), in order to return a value from a different column in the same row.

How do you compare two lists in Excel and pull matching data?

Compare Two Columns and Highlight Matches

1. Select the entire data set.
2. Click the Home tab.
3. In the Styles group, click on the ‘Conditional Formatting’ option.
4. Hover the cursor on the Highlight Cell Rules option.
5. Click on Duplicate Values.
6. In the Duplicate Values dialog box, make sure ‘Duplicate’ is selected.

How do I match data from two Excel spreadsheets?

How to use the Compare Sheets wizard

1. Step 1: Select your worksheets and ranges. In the list of open books, choose the sheets you are going to compare.
2. Step 2: Specify the comparing mode.
3. Step 3: Select the key columns (if there are any)
4. Step 4: Choose your comparison options.

How do I compare two columns in Excel and return the third column?

Write down the formula, =INDEX(C2:C12,MATCH(F2,IF(B2:B12=F3,A2:A12),0)) in cell F4. After writing the formula press Ctrl + Shift +Enter to use it as an array formula. You will see a pair of 2nd brackets appear in the formula which contains the formula inside it. After doing this you will get to see the below result.

How do I compare list names in Excel?

Compare Two Lists

1. First, select the range A1:A18 and name it firstList, select the range B1:B20 and name it secondList.
2. Next, select the range A1:A18.
3. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting.
4. Click New Rule.
5. Select ‘Use a formula to determine which cells to format’.

1 Answer

1. Select your entire data (not including your headers)
2. Click on Conditional Formatting on the Home ribbon.
3. New Rule > Use a formula to determine which cells.
4. Enter =$A2&$B2=$C2&$D2 as the formula.
5. Choose the desired format for matching records (row highlights are under the ‘Fill’ tab)
6. Click OK.

How do you do a Vlookup to compare 3 columns?

Using VLOOKUP on multiple columns

1. Select the cell D11 by clicking on it.
2. Insert the formula “=VLOOKUP(B11&C11,$B$3:$D$7,3)” .
3. Press Enter to apply the formula to cell D11.

How do you compare data variations?

Calculating the coefficient of variation involves a simple ratio. Simply take the standard deviation and divide it by the mean. Higher values indicate that the standard deviation is relatively large compared to the mean.

How do you compare variability of two data sets?

Unlike the previous measures of variability, the variance includes all values in the calculation by comparing each value to the mean. To calculate this statistic, you calculate a set of squared differences between the data points and the mean, sum them, and then divide by the number of observations.

How do you compare two datasets with different sample sizes?

One way to compare the two different size data sets is to divide the large set into an N number of equal size sets. The comparison can be based on absolute sum of of difference. THis will measure how many sets from the Nset are in close match with the single 4 sample set.

How do I create a VLOOKUP in Excel?

How to use VLOOKUP in Excel

1. Click the cell where you want the VLOOKUP formula to be calculated.
2. Click Formulas at the top of the screen.
3. Click Lookup & Reference on the Ribbon.
4. Click VLOOKUP at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
5. Specify the cell in which you will enter the value whose data you’re looking for.

How use VLOOKUP step by step?

How to use VLOOKUP in Excel

1. Step 1: Organize the data.
2. Step 2: Tell the function what to lookup.
3. Step 3: Tell the function where to look.
4. Step 4: Tell Excel what column to output the data from.
5. Step 5: Exact or approximate match.

All the time there is a necessity in Excel to look at two records or two informational indexes to track down absent or matching things. As this is Excel, there is in every case more than one method for getting things done, including looking at information. From equations and Conditional Formatting to Power Query. Let’s take a look at a number of ways of contrasting two records in Excel and we will likewise take a gander at looking at whole columns of an informational collection. The following are a few distinct strategies used to look at two arrangements of a segment in Excel for matches and contrasts.

• Strategy 1: Compare Two Lists Using Equal Sign Operator.
• Strategy 2: Match Data by Using Row Difference Technique.
• Strategy 3: Match Row Difference by Using IF Condition.
• Strategy 4: Match Data Even If There is a Row Difference.
• Strategy 5: Highlight All the Matching Data utilizing Conditional Formatting.

Presently, let us talk about every one of the techniques exhaustively with a model: –

Strategy 1: Compare Two Lists Using Equal Sign Operator

We should follow the underneath moves toward looking at the two records.

• Immediately after the two columns, we must insert a new column in the next column.

• We should place the equation in cell C2 as =A2=B2.

• This equation tests whether cell A2 esteem is equivalent to cell B2. On the off chance that both the cell values are coordinated, we will come by the outcome as “TRUE” or “FALSE.”

• We will drag the recipe to cell C9 to decide on different qualities.

Any place we share similar qualities practically speaking lines, we obtain the outcome as “TRUE” or “FALSE”.

Strategy 2: Match Data by Using Row Difference Technique

You probably won’t have utilized the “Column Difference” strategy in your working environment. Be that as it may, today, we will tell you the best way to utilize this procedure to match information column by line.

• To feature non-matching cells column by line, we should choose the whole information first.
• Presently, we should press the successful easy route key “F5” to open the “Go to Special” instrument. Presently in the “Go-To” window, press the “Special” tab.

• In the following window, we should go to the “Go To Special” and pick the “Row differences” choice. Then, at that point, click on “OK.”

• We will obtain the accompanying outcome.

As we can find in the above window, it has chosen the cells any place there is a line distinction. Hence, we should fill in a variety to feature the line contrast values.

Strategy 3: Match Row Difference by Using IF Condition

How might we leave out the IF condition when we have any desire to match information column by line. In the primary model, we have by the same token “TRUE” or “FALSE.” But consider the possibility that we really want an alternate outcome rather than the default consequences of by the same token “TRUE or FALSE.” Assume we want an outcome as “Coordinating” in the event that there is no column distinction and the outcome ought to be “Not Matching” on the off chance that there is a line contrast.

• To begin with, we should open the IF condition in cell C2. Apply the logical test as A2=B2.
• Note: Logical Test=>In excel, toward the early phases of learning, it is a seriously troublesome errand to grasp the idea of consistent tests. Be that as it may, when you ace this, it will be significant expertise to your CV. As a general rule, in succession, we utilize a legitimate test to match various models also, show up at the ideal arrangement. To succeed, we have as numerous consistent equations. Go to the Formula tab and snap on the Logical Function gathering to see every one of the sensible recipes.

• We really want to apply the recipe to come by the outcome. We should drag the recipe to cell C9 to decide on different qualities.

Strategy 4: Match Data Even If There is a Row Difference

The matching information on the column distinctions system may not work continually; the value may be in various cells also. So we truly need to include different advances in these circumstances. As of now, look at the underneath data. So let us utilize our capability VLOOKUP(Note: The VLOOKUP succeed capability looks for a specific worth and returns a relating match in view of an exceptional identifier. An exceptional identifier is extraordinarily connected with every one of the records of the information base.)

Along these lines, if the data matches, we get the Name; regardless, we get the bumble regarded as #N/A. Showing mistake values doesn’t look great. So rather than showing the mistake, let us supplant them with “Not Available.” For this, utilization of the IFERROR( Note: The IFERROR capacity in Excel truly investigates a recipe for mix-ups and returns a foreordained worth rather than the goof. This returned worth can be a text, an empty string, a reasonable worth, a number, etc. The bumbles are dealt with by the capacity to consolidate “#N/A,” “#DIV/0!,” “#NAME, and so forth) capability in excel.

Strategy 5: Highlight All the Matching Data utilizing Conditional Formatting

On the off chance that you hate excel recipes, relax. We can in any case match information without the equation. For instance, utilizing straightforward restrictive formatting (Note: Conditional designing in excel helps design scope of cells in view of the satisfaction of at least one circumstance. The design to be applied can either be chosen from the different choices given in Excel or made without any preparation by the client. Contingent designing chips away at the standard “if so, then that ought to be finished.”) in excel, we can feature every one of the matching information of two records.

• We ought to first pick the data. Presently, we should go to “Home” and “Contingent Formatting” and pick “Highlight Cell Rules” > “Duplicate Values.”

• Subsequently, we can see the “Duplicate Cell Values” arranging window.
• We can pick the different design tones starting from the drop list in excel. Select the primary arranging tone and press the “OK” button.
• This will feature every one of the matching information from the two records.

• Simply for the situation, rather than featuring every one of the matching information, to feature not matching information, then, at that point, we can go to the “Duplicate Values” window and pick the choice “Unique.”
• Subsequently, it will feature every one of the non-matching qualities, as displayed beneath.