Comparing before and after data

[tcy999]

My brain is about to implode.

Can someone please suggest a solution to the following. I have two sets of data (actually they are the same data but just a 'before' set and 'after' set) in two seperate worksheets in the same workbook. I am receiving these data from external sources, and it may be that, for example, they send before data but not after data, or they send two sets of after data by mistake... Anyway the point is that even if I sort both sets of data by their reference number, it's not very likely I will end up with two lists both in the same order.

I need to compare before and after results for each client (identified by the reference number). Is there a simple way (rather than having to go through them manually) to compare the two sets of data ie. pull in the corresponding after data in to the before worksheet so that I can see the difference between the two for each client....???

Any help in pointing me in the best direction to go would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Joe4]

Actually, I think the easiest way to do this would be to do an Unmatched Query in Microsoft Access. Access makes these sort of comparisions very easy, where they are a bit more cumbersome in Excel.

 

[tcy999]

Hi jmiskey, thanks for the very sensible suggestion! Unfortunately, funding and project restraints means I can only use Excel.