How to Compare Two Columns in Excel
There are many different ways to compare your data when it is present in two different columns, tables, or spreadsheets to make sure that there shouldn’t be any missing or duplicate data present in the columns.
Below are some methods to compare two columns :
- Highlighting the unique or duplicate values in each column using Functions
- Display Unique or duplicate using conditional formatting or formulas.
- Comparison through row by row
- Using LOOKUP formulas.
In this example, we will be using random cities’ names in two different columns and comparing them to find duplicate or unique cities’ names. For this example, we will create the following dataset. The dataset will contain two columns as Cities A and Cities B, which will contain random names of cities. Below is the screenshot of the dataset attached.
Fig 1 – Dataset
How to Compare Two Columns in Excel : Easy and Quick Methods
Excel provides various functions and methods by which we can compare two columns and identify matching and mismatching data. Working with a very large Excel dataset, comparing two different columns, and recording the result as Matched or Not Matched can be very time-consuming. It is simple to compare columns in small tables but it becomes complicated when you need to compare two columns in a large spreadsheet. Comparing the columns manually is a time-consuming approach that can be avoided with the application of some fundamental knowledge of Excel.