How to compare two worksheets in a workbook or two workbooks for differences in Excel?

As the below screenshot shown, have you ever tried to compare two worksheets for differences in Excel? This article is going to show you methods of comparing two spreadsheets for differences in the same Excel file or different Excel files in Excel. Please browse for more details.

Compare two worksheets for differences in an Excel file with formula
Highlight differences between two worksheets with Conditional Formatting
Easily compare two sheets for differences in an Excel file or two Excel files

Compare two worksheets for differences in the same workbook with formula

Supposing you have two spreadsheets in an Excel file as below screenshot shown. For comparing the sales columns for differences between these two sheets and listing the compared result in a new sheet, please do as follows.

1. Create a new sheet to placing the compared result, select a blank cell (here I select cell B5) in the new sheet, copy and paste the below formula into it and press the Enter key. Keep selecting cell C2, drag the fill handle to the right cell and then drag down to list all compared results.

You can see the result as below screenshot shown.

Highlight differences between two worksheets with Conditional Formatting

Besides, you can highlight all cells that have different values in two worksheets by using the Excel build-in function - Conditional Formatting.

1. Select the whole table in the worksheet that you will highlight different value cells in it (in this case, I select table 1 in Sheet1), and then enable the Conditional Formatting function by clicking Conditional Formatting > New Rule under the Home tab. See screenshot:

2. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, you need to:

• 2.1) Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format option in the Select a Rule Type dialog;
• 2.2) Enter the below formula into the Format values where this formula is true box;
• 2.3) Click the Format button to specify a highlight color for the differences;
• 2.4) Click the OK button. See screenshot:

Now all differences in table 1 compared with table 2 in Sheet2 are highlighted immediately as below screenshot shown.

Easily compare two sheets for differences in an Excel file or two Excel files

This section will introduce the Select Same & Different Cells utility of Kutools for Excel. With this utility, you can easily compare two worksheets for differences in an Excel file or two Excel files as you need.

1. Select the whole table in the worksheet that you will highlight different value cells in it (in this case, I select table 1 in Sheet1), and then click Kutools > Select > Select Same & Different Cells.

2. In the Select Same & Different Cells dialog box, you can see the selected table range is placing in Find values in box, please go ahead to:

• 2.1) Select the range you will compared with in another worksheet of current workbook or different workbook in the According to box;
• 2.2) Select Each row in the Based on section;
• 2.3) Select the Different Values option;
• 2.4) Click the OK button. See screenshot:

Now all differences in Table 1 of Sheet1 are selecting or highlighting immediately after comparing with Table 2 in Sheet2. See screenshot: