Finding similar names, but not exact.

[SCWI]

I am currently working on two files with similar data. There are lists of client names that I am trying to match, however they are different in small ways (capitalization, abbreviations, etc.). Is there any way to vlookup (or some other function) similar names so that I don't have to go through each client one by one in order to match their names?

Example: One list says Ashland, Inc. and the other file has Ashland Inc. Therefore, when I try to do a vlookup to list all common names within the two files, they error out. I would like to try and find a way to filter common names so I don't have to go through each one individually. Any help would be greatly appreciated as it will save me lots of time. Thanks.

 

[Joe Was]

http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?t=203386

 

[SCWI]

Thanks for your reply, but does this function work in Excel 2003? I tried entereing in the fuzzyvlookup, but can't seem to get it to work.

 

[Joe Was]

It will only run from a Standard module, like: Module1


Try this:

=IF(MATCH("*Tom*",A1,0)=1,A1,"")

If you copy this down it will show any values in that cell if any of thouse values are "Tom"