Программа для сравнения двух файлов excel

Knowing how to compare two Excel files is important in any environment where a lot of people are making changes to the same file. This is common in a business environment or in the case where Excel files are shared on the cloud where many people have access to make changes.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to compare two Excel files. In some cases you can merge the changes made in two different Excel files into one single file.

How to Compare Two Excel Files

If you have two Excel files with multiple sheets, the easiest approach is to do a full worksheet comparison using third-party tools.

You can find a few tools online that help you compare Excel files, but there are a few you can use for free. One of those is Spreadsheet Compare, available from SourceForge.

Download and run the app, which installs an add-on in your Excel application.

To use Spreadsheet Compare to compare two Excel files:

1. Open both of the Excel files you want to compare and select the Add-ins menu.

   Make copies of the Excel files before you start this process so that you’ll have your originals in case something goes wrong.

2. In this menu are three options. Select Full Compare.

3. A Spreadsheet Compare window pops up showing the files in two fields named «First/Before» and «Second/After.» The older Excel file (before changes were made) should be in the First/Before field. If it isn’t, select the Swap button to put it there. Then select Next.

4. Customize how the comparison performs in the next screen. You can change where in the sheet the comparison starts, whether it’s case sensitive, and how mismatches are identified. Select Next.

5. Select the sheets from the first workbook that you want to compare and select Add to move those sheets to the Compare these Worksheets field. Select Next and repeat the process for the second workbook.

6. Review the report configuration settings. Modify them if you wish and then press Next twice and Compare to finish.

7. Finally, you’ll see each original sheet updated with the changed cells highlighted in red. The tool also creates a third sheet with a report showing the old value crossed out and the new value in its place.

This tool is a powerful way to compare entire Excel worksheets and see quick results with all the changes. You can scroll through and keep or remove the changes you want to keep.

Use Excel to Compare Two Sheets

If you have individual worksheets in an Excel file to compare, you can do this in a few different ways. One is to use formulas to create a third spreadsheet showing all of the differences. Another is through conditional formatting to highlight cells that have changed.

Compare Excel Spreadsheets Using Formulas

If you have two sheets that you want to compare, you can create a third sheet that highlights which cells are different and shows you the difference. This is accomplished using an IF formula.

1. To start the comparison of two Excel sheets, create a third sheet. Label it Results to make the results sheet easier to identify later.

2. In Cell A2 of the results sheet, paste the following formula and press Enter:

   =IF(Sheet1!A2<>Sheet2!A2, "Sheet1:" & Sheet1!A2 & " And Sheet2:" & Sheet2!A2, "No Difference")
   

   You can modify this formula to start at any cell you like. If the data in your sheet starts at row B and column 3, you change the formula to use B3 instead of A2.

3. This formula compares the cell from Sheet1 to the same cell in Sheet2. If the cells are the same, the results sheet displays No Difference. If they’re different, the cell provides the different values from each sheet.

4. Click the corner of the cell and drag the mouse across the sheet to the last column that has data from the other sheets you’re comparing. This fills the comparison formula to the last column and automatically adjusts the cell references.

5. With the same row highlighted, click the corner of the last cell and drag the mouse down the sheet to the last row that has data from the other sheets you’re comparing. This fills the comparison formula to the last row and automatically adjusts the cell references.

6. Scrolling through the sheet, you’ll see all the cells that are different between Sheet1 and Sheet2 are displayed with the values from each sheet. Just scroll through to identify all of the differences.

Using formulas is one of the easiest ways to compare individual sheets, because you don’t have to alter the original sheets in any way.

Compare Excel Sheets With Conditional Formatting

Another approach to comparing two sheets is using conditional formatting. As you can see from the results sheet above, with all cells using the same formatting, it can be difficult to spot the differences between sheets.

You can use conditional formatting to identify the differences.

1. Highlight all cells in the results sheet. Select the Home menu.

2. Select Conditional Formatting from the Styles group, and choose New Rule.

3. In the New Formatting Rule window that openss, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format. In the Format values where this formula is true field, paste the following formula and then select Format.

   =Sheet1!A2<>Sheet2!A2
   

   Just as with the formula approach, you can start the formatting feature at any cell. If your data starts at B3 instead of A2, edit this formula to use B3 instead. The formatting will start at B3 and fill all rows and columns below and to the right of it.

4. Configure the formatting you want the cells to have when there are differences between the two sheets. You can select font style, underline, color, and strikethrough. Select OK.

5. The formatting makes it easy to see where the cells on the two sheets have differences.

Compare Excel Worksheets Manually

One simple and quick way to compare two worksheets is by doing so visually. Excel provides an easy way to visually compare two sheets side-by-side.

1. In the workbook where you have two sheets you want to compare, select the View menu. Select New Window to open the same workbook in a new Excel window in the background.

2. Select the View menu again, and click View Side by Side. This places the two workbook windows side by side, each filling half the screen.

3. In one window, select the sheet you want to compare. As you scroll the sheet in the window on one side, you’ll see the sheet in the other window scroll at the same time.

Side-by-side viewing is especially useful in those situations where two worksheets are mostly the same, but you know there are a few differences. Synchronized scrolling lets you scan down the spreadsheet visually to find those differences.

Viewing Side-by-Side in Excel 2010 and Earlier

If you are using an earlier version of Excel, the individual worksheet files open in the same Window. You can still use the View Side-by-Side feature, but finding it is a little different.

1. Open both files in the same Excel window.

2. In the View menu, select Arrange All to split the open files into multiple sub-windows.

3. Select the View Side by Side icon to view the sub-windows side-by-side and scroll both of them simultaneously.

Options Make It Easier to Compare Two Excel Files

The option you use to compare data in Excel depends on the volume of data and where its stored. If you have multiple sheets in two different Excel files, your best option is to use a third-party add-on like Spreadsheet Compare.

However, if you’re only looking to compare two or more sheets inside one workbook, any of the other options work well. Use formulas and conditional formatting for large spreadsheets with just few small changes scattered throughout that you need to find. Use the visual side-by-side approach if you have two spreadsheets with lots of data changes that are easier to identify visually.

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