I have an excel file with 10,000 rows in column A some values are the same.
Example:
A1 - P7767
A2 - P3443
A3 - P7767
A4 - P8746
A5 - P9435
NOTE: You may want to remove duplicate items (eg duplicate entries in the same column) before doing these steps to prevent false positives.
The easiest way to do it, at least for me, is:
Conditional format-> Add new rule->Set your own formula:
=ISNA(MATCH(A2;$B:$B;0))
Where A2 is the first element in column A to be compared and B is the column where A's element will be searched.
Once you have set the formula and picked the format, apply this rule to all elements in the column.
Hope this helps
A simple formula to use is
=COUNTIF($B:$B,A1)
Formula specified is for cell A1. Simply copy and paste special - format to the whole of column A
Suppose you want to compare a column A and column H in a same spreadsheet .
You need to go another column next to these 2 columns and paste this formula : =(Sheet1!A:A=Sheet1!H:H) this will display FALSE or TRUE in the column . So you can use this new column to color the non matching values using conditional color formatting feature .
I was trying to compare A-B columns and highlight equal text, but usinng the obove fomrulas some text did not match at all. So I used form (VBA macro to compare two columns and color highlight cell differences) codes and I modified few things to adapt it to my application and find any desired column (just by clicking it). In my case, I use large and different numbers of rows on each column. Hope this helps:
Sub ABTextCompare()
Dim Report As Worksheet
Dim i, j, colNum, vMatch As Integer
Dim lastRowA, lastRowB, lastRow, lastColumn As Integer
Dim ColumnUsage As String
Dim colA, colB, colC As String
Dim A, B, C As Variant
Set Report = Excel.ActiveSheet
vMatch = 1
'Select A and B Columns to compare
On Error Resume Next
Set A = Application.InputBox(Prompt:="Select column to compare", Title:="Column A", Type:=8)
If A Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
colA = Split(A(1).Address(1, 0), "$")(0)
Set B = Application.InputBox(Prompt:="Select column being searched", Title:="Column B", Type:=8)
If A Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
colB = Split(B(1).Address(1, 0), "$")(0)
'Select Column to show results
Set C = Application.InputBox("Select column to show results", "Results", Type:=8)
If C Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
colC = Split(C(1).Address(1, 0), "$")(0)
'Get Last Row
lastRowA = Report.Cells.Find("", Range(colA & 1), xlFormulas, xlByRows, xlPrevious).Row - 1 ' Last row in column A
lastRowB = Report.Cells.Find("", Range(colB & 1), xlFormulas, xlByRows, xlPrevious).Row - 1 ' Last row in column B
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'***************************************************
For i = 2 To lastRowA
For j = 2 To lastRowB
If Report.Cells(i, A.Column).Value <> "" Then
If InStr(1, Report.Cells(j, B.Column).Value, Report.Cells(i, A.Column).Value, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
vMatch = vMatch + 1
Report.Cells(i, A.Column).Interior.ColorIndex = 35 'Light green background
Range(colC & 1).Value = "Items Found"
Report.Cells(i, A.Column).Copy Destination:=Range(colC & vMatch)
Exit For
Else
'Do Nothing
End If
End If
Next j
Next i
If vMatch = 1 Then
MsgBox Prompt:="No Itmes Found", Buttons:=vbInformation
End If
'***************************************************
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
A1 --> conditional formatting --> cell value is B1 --> format: whatever you want
hope that helps