Look for similarities between two rows

[samir_aguiar]

Hello there,

I have two rows of names. The first one has about 400 names and the second 1200. I'd like to know if any name of the first list is also in the second.

The problem is that the first list has full names, while the second has only first and last name mostly. For example, suppose that in the first list there is a John Guttel Bahen. Probably in the second list this same name would only be John Guttel or John Bahen, which makes it hard to compare using simple formulas.

I don't exactly need this to be done in Excel (it's just a list, so I could export it to a text file or something else), I just thought that it might be easier to do using it.

Hope you guys can help me.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Samir

 

[Derek Brown]

You did not say which version of Office is being used.
Here is a post on the subject of Fuzzy Matchning:
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195635
But if you are using Office 2010 you may be interested in:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15011

 

[samir_aguiar]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm using Office 2010, but I'm on a Mac OS so there's no way to run the setup (Crossover is not working with this one). Is there anyway to install that without running the setup? Maybe by moving some files to some folder?

Thanks again.

 

[Derek Brown]

The Microsoft web site states that the system OS requirements are:
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista
so you will not be able to run it on MAC.