Excel compare two strings for similarity. Feb 25, 2014 · Weird question.

Excel compare two strings for similarity A frequent operation in such contexts is comparing two strings — determining whether they are identical, how similar they are, or where they differ. Sep 22, 2025 · Learn how to compare two lists in Excel using user interface commands, formulas, and advanced Microsoft Excel data analytics tools. Aug 20, 2025 · This tutorial will teach you 6 easy methods to compare two strings for similarity in excel. Nov 20, 2022 · Could someone please assist with how I could compare two text strings to return a similarity score or a percentage in excel? Let's say cell A1 contains the text string “Computer” whereas cell B1 contains “Computer accessory”. It is FAR from a trivial coding exercise to display differences in two strings. Enhance decision-making in your worksheets efficiently. , 85% similar) based on algorithms that can account for typos, reordered words, and other variations. Learn effective techniques to find similar values and enhance data analysis. If I have two strings of text (they are product descriptions), can I somehow compare the two strings and give them a percentage of similarity score? So two identical strings would be 100% score, strings with a few words off or on would… May 14, 2024 · 8 quick ways to compare text in Excel and highlight differences. This will be helpful to quickly compare raw data to what we have on file and recognize any duplicates/similarities. Thank you for the assistance!!! Feb 3, 2015 · How to Compare Two Strings in Excel for Similarity Excel comes loaded with several useful text or string comparison functions. Also, I need it to output a % of similarity: 100% being a perfect match, 0% being not at all comparable. Smith–Waterman : A family of algorithms for computing variable sub-sequence similarities. The way to check the similarity between any data point or group is by calculating the distance between those data points. Mar 7, 2017 · 16 I was facing the exact same problem! With a few searches I could get and modify the following VBA code that will enable a function named =Similarity(). Microsoft Excel, a leading spreadsheet software, offers powerful tools and functions for comparing strings efficiently. Mar 1, 2025 · String comparison, the process of determining the relationship between two or more text strings, is a fundamental operation in data analysis and manipulation. It involves evaluating two or more strings to determine their similarity or difference, and can be used to compare data sets, identify trends, and perform data validation. g. Aug 26, 2025 · Comparing two comma-separated strings in Excel is a great way to analyze data, and it's a task that often comes up in various fields. Do this by recording a dummy macro and select to store it in Personal Macro workbook. In Excel, you can use the EXACT () function to compare two text strings, to check if the texts are similar or not. Dec 29, 2022 · In this article, we will learn how to compare two adjacent strings in excel for identifying differences or similarities. Mar 17, 2009 · I'm looking for a string similarity algorithm that yields better results on variable length strings than the ones that are usually suggested (levenshtein distance, soundex, etc). Oct 4, 2015 · Is there a way to get the similarity percentage between text in two cells that are in the same row? I've tried Fuzzy Lookup but it doesn't compare the cells in the same row which is what I need. Nov 1, 2023 · Metric: Measures the similarity between two strings by comparing their characters and providing a similarity score between 0 and 1. What I am assuming is, somebody entered an extra space somewhere. I have these two lists of states that I need to extract the differences. Let's break down how you can calculate the percentage of similarity, along with some common issues and alternative methods. One way to compare these strings is by using functions such as “Exact” or “IF”. Now you can manually add new macro's and functions in this personal workbook. XLSB!FuzzyFind (A1 In this tutorial, I'll show you various ways to compare two columns in Excel. Jul 10, 2024 · How to Compare Text in Excel is a handy skill that helps you find differences or similarities between two or more text strings. You can certainly display from where they are different on wards, but highlighting each difference is a difficult coding problem. The solution will offer a software platform to enhance planning From my experience so far though, comparing strings in VBA seems to be a rather fickle thing, because I feel like I get inconsistent results. It compares two strings character by character and returns a In this guide, learn 5 easy Excel string compare methods to detect and highlight similar strings. Is there any way to do this on Excel? Apr 11, 2013 · Perform approximate match and fuzzy lookup in Excel. Aug 31, 2014 · Hi all, I am after a function/VBA to compare text. Here we discuss how to compare two string values using StrComp function in excel VBA along with examples. Also trying to have the threshold value for similarity to be passed in as a parameter. For example, consider the strings "geeks" and "geeky" —we might want to know how closely they match, whether for tasks like comparing user inputs or finding duplicate entries. Mar 12, 2013 · Jun 11, 2024 myall_blues W Comparing two column 7 on 2 worksheets in same Workbook whassan Mar 7, 2023 Excel Questions Replies 7 Views 982 Jun 7, 2023 Feb 28, 2025 · Comparing strings in Excel is a fundamental operation that can be performed in various ways, depending on the desired outcome. May 14, 2023 · Compare similarity between two columns Hi all, I am currently trying to compare similarities between columns A and B. Apr 2, 2017 · Looking to create a formula that determines the similarity between two sets of strings. Oct 2, 2019 · I’m attempting to compare two columns of strings for differences. This add in includes a function that does a fuzzy search in Excel. The Jaccard Similarity is calculated as the intersection of the sets divided by the union of the sets. I need to see if Column F is missing anything from Column To compare two text strings in Excel, you can use the EXACT Function or you can use =A1=B1. A1 and B1) and text responses will rarely be more than one/two words, so the comparison should be based on characters, not words. Comparing text in Excel is fairly easy and can be achieved with simple formulas. Aug 13, 2024 · This article explains how to compare two lists in Excel for matches using equal operator, conditional formatting, VLOOKUP, MATCH functions. Whether you’re looking to identify identical strings, compare strings for similarity, or find differences between strings, Excel offers several functions and techniques to accomplish these tasks. The EXACT function checks for case sensitivity. Is there a way to insert some code to identify which character # (slot) the space firstly "changes" per say ? Jul 11, 2025 · In Python, we often need to measure the similarity between two strings. one list contains laptop models, the other contains parts numbers. The EXACT function is the most basic function for string comparison in Excel. Another important point, which is what I am yet to figure out with Jul 2, 2023 · When you compare strings in Excel, you are comparing the sequence of characters in two or more cells to determine if they match exactly or partially. That’s great, unless you actually need to find strings that are really close or very similar. For example: Cell A2 contains: "1,E,E,E,E, Jan 20, 2015 · Is there any way to calculate the % difference between two strings in Excel? For example, oftentimes a customer sends us a list of items that they want us to match with items in our system based on Oct 25, 2017 · Solved: Hi, Is there a way to compare two text strings for similarity? I'm looking for the return value to be a percentage, not true/false. Two methods have been explained in this article as mentioned below. For example: The project will provide a platform and software solution to assist in planning & scheduling VS. This examples shows two ways to compare text strings in Excel. May 24, 2024 · 10 easy methods to compare two cells in Excel. json, xml) to find differences with Diffchecker online for free! Use our desktop app for private, offline diffs. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. QUESTION: What is the best procedure for comparing two strings in VBA? For example: Imagine there are two lists. How I used it: I ordered alphabetically my column info and applied the formula. May 9, 2023 · Basic comparison of two strings When comparing two strings in Excel, it is crucial to do so systematically and accurately. Both columns have a list of string that are suffixed with a random character. I just tried this one (don't know the original source) and it works fine. Jun 15, 2024 · Learn how to compare in Excel by comparing columns, cells, worksheets, or workbooks. The techniques shown can be used to find/highlight matches and differences. By using this function, you can compare two text strings and determine whether they are identical or similar in a specific way. A practice workbook is also included to download. The formula looks like this: =PERSONAL. Feb 14, 2024 · What other way can I compare two strings words-wise, then identify percentage similarity and highlight slimier words in two strings, like how plagiarism checkers work. Mar 20, 2023 · The tutorial shows how to compare text strings in Excel for case-insensitive and exact match: compare two cells by their values, string length, or the number of occurrences of a specific character, and more. Example Learn how to compare the similarity between two strings in Excel using the Levenshtein Distance algorithm. With =A1=B1, Chris would appear as the same. Oct 26, 2006 · I have two strings which I compare nutritional values and they are all text lots of numbers and letters ,when I implemented your function, I receive a blank. Feb 25, 2014 · Weird question. It will be comparing across 2 cells (e. It calculates a "similarity score" (e. This comparison might be as simple as checking for equality or as complex as evaluating how Nov 2, 2013 · 7 This question already has answers here: Comparing Similar Text Strings in Excel (7 answers) May 24, 2013 · Sometimes you have a need to compare text strings that don't exactly match. And I would like column C to provide the desired results as shown below. Explaining how the 'IF' function can be used for matching similar text In Python, strings are immutable sequences of characters that form the backbone of many programming tasks involving data input, storage, and analysis. In this article, we will learn how to compare two adjacent strings in excel for identifying differences or similarities. Jul 23, 2014 · I've got two columns populated with names, and I want to see if the names in each row are similar (not the exact same, just similar) to each other. Apr 30, 2024 · Learn how to compare two cells text in Excel using different functions and formulas with 9 different relevant examples. Example 'Chris' is not the same as 'CHRIS' if you use the EXACT function. Out of the box, Excel provides a function named EXACT that will return whether two strings are exact matches. Jun 7, 2024 · String Similarity But what exactly is string similarity? In essence, it’s a measure of how alike two strings are, quantifying their resemblance despite variations in spelling, grammar, or structure. Aug 23, 2024 · Compare two strings in Excel and highlight differences to assess similarity, allowing for detailed comparison and analysis of data. Aug 15, 2025 · I'm trying to compare two comma-separated strings in Excel and calculate the percentage of similarity based on matching values at the same position. Excel users often need to compare cells or columns to check if the same text is available in the cells/columns or not. It can be used to identify fuzzy duplicate rows within a single table or to fuzzy join similar rows between two different tables. The format of the prefix is two strings appended by an underscore, and the suffix is added I would place the macro in your PERSONAL section, this way the macro is available in all worksheets. Guide to VBA string comparison. May 22, 2024 · This article focuses on the seven fruitful ways to compare text in two columns in Excel from different aspects, with relevant examples. Jul 28, 2023 · Calculate Jaccard Similarity between two text strings ‎ 07-28-2023 01:57 AM Hi, I have a table with two columns containing a text string like this: Is it possible creating a new column (or using a measure) to calculate the Jaccard Index for these two strings? Thanks in advance! Best, Jori @Greg_Deckler Aug 14, 2019 · I have two columns in Excel. Feb 17, 2019 · Hello, I want a tool that identifies any matches/similarities from one list of names, to another list of names. By following these steps, you can easily compare two cells or even entire columns of text to find discrepancies or matches. This formula calculates the minimum number of single-character edits required to change one string into another. A very common example of this is when you have names in two columns and you want to check if the names are exactly the same or what names are missing in one column. Sep 30, 2020 · To compare two text strings in Excel to determine if they're equal, you can use the EXACT function. I want a function that will return a percentage of say 75% in cell C1 when the two strings are compared. Both columns have names of companies and I want to check whether one is a subsidiary or sister company of another. One is case-sensitive and one is case-insensitive. Jun 14, 2024 · This article provides 6 useful examples to find similar text in two columns in Excel using IF function, conditional formatting and VBA. This function will output a number that goes from 0 to 1, according to the similarity of the two input cells. Aug 5, 2025 · String comparison is a crucial skill for professionals who work with data in Excel. Compare text, files, and code (e. Here’s a quick overview: You can use formulas like EXACT, IF, and conditional formatting to highlight the differences. If you need to identify duplicates, match data across lists, or highlight changes over time in Excel for a small dataset, say 5 to 10 rows, you might do that manually using the naked eye. The Fuzzy Lookup Add-In for Excel was developed by Microsoft Research and performs fuzzy matching of textual data in Microsoft Excel. In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =EXACT (B5,C5) Thread: Compare two strings for similarity or highlight differences in Excel Thread Tools 08-17-2017, 07:35 AM #1 ka1234 I really don't think the problem here is producing a string, I the REAL hard problem is when the strings are different lengths. Jan 22, 2024 · Formula to compare text in 2 cells I am hoping someone can help me with a formula in Column C that looks in column A to see if the text in column B is there and return a value of True/Yes or False/No. Feb 20, 2025 · Leveraging AI to Compare Strings with Fuzzy Matching Fuzzy matching is an approach that gauges the similarity between two strings rather than looking for a perfect match. Download our practice book, modify data and exercise. Download our Excel workbook, modify data, find new outputs and exercise with formulas! Strings do not have to be the same length Hamming Distance : The number of characters that are different in two equal length strings. Sørensen–Dice Coefficient : A similarity algorithm that computes difference coefficients of adjacent character pairs. Aug 31, 2023 · To calculate the Jaccard Similarity between two sets of words in Excel, you can use a combination of formulas to extract and compare the words. Feb 11, 2024 · I am trying to develop a way to filter out and catch re-submitted project ideas and similar ones by comparing them to an exacting date base by doing stings comparison to find the similarities and show the percentage %. . By utilizing these functions, Excel can determine if the strings are identical or different. The example dataset below contains 2 lists of information about people from two different sources and we want to compare these strings for knowing that are they either exactly similar or not. iyc iglji kqwzcrh cobo zldrv upbiq gsltvcd nbix atgtv vyo xirlzei dofjhd gpmggic suswgv pcpmrybkk