How to compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values in Excel?
For example I have two fruit lists in two worksheets as below screenshots shown, and now I need to compare these two lists and find out missing values in each list. It may be not easy to solve it manually. In this article, I will introduce two tricky ways to solve it easily.
- Compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values with formulas
- Compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values with Kutools for Excel
Compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values with formulas
This method will take an example to find out missing values of Fruit List 1, and highlight/color these missing values in Fruit List 2. The following are detailed steps:
1. Select the first blank cell besides Fruit List 2, type Missing in Fruit List 1 as column header, next enter the formula =IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,'Fruit List 1'!$A$2:$A$22,1,FALSE)),A2,"") into the second blank cell, and drag the Fill Handle to the range as you need. See below screenshot:
Notes:
(1) In above formula, A2 is the value in Fruit List 2, 'Fruit List 1'!$A$2:$A$22 is the range whose missing values you are looking for.
(2) This formula ignores case sensitivity.
Then you will see missing values of Fruit List 1 is listing in the new Column as below screenshot shown:
2. Select the found values in the Fruit List 2, and highlight them with clicking the Home > Fill Color and selecting a fill color from drop down list.
3. You can apply similar formula =IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,'Fruit List 2'!$A$2:$A$22,1,FALSE)),A2,"") (A2 is the fruit in Fruit List 1, and 'Fruit List 2'!$A$2:$A$22 is the range whose missing values you are looking for) to find out missing values in Fruit List 2 (see below screenshots), and then highlight these missing values in Fruit List 1 manually.
Compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values with Kutools for Excel
The long complicated formula may make you confused. In this method, I will introduce Kutools for Excel for you. Its Select Same & Different Cells utility can help you compare two lists and highlight unique values (missing values) quite easily in Excel.
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1. Click the Kutools > Select > Select Same & Different Cells to open the Compare Ranges dialog box.
2. In the Compare Ranges dialog box, you need to:
(1) In the Find Values in box, specify the range of Fruit List 1 without the list header;
(2) In the According to box, specify the range of Fruit List 2 without the list header;
(3) In the Find section, please check the Different Values option;
(4) In the Processing of results section, please check the Fill backcolor option, and select a fill color from the below drop down list.
Note: Please uncheck the My data has headers option, because in our case two lists have different headers. If your lists have same headers, you can specify the ranges with list headers in both Find Values in box and According to box, and check the My data has headers option.
3. Click the Ok button. Another Compare Ranges comes out to show you how many values have been selected. Just click the OK button to close it.
Now you see all values which are missing in Fruit List 2 are highlighted by the specified fill color in Fruit List 1 as above screenshot shown.
4. You can apply this utility again to highlight all missing values of Fruit List 1 in the Fruit List 2.
Note: This utility is case- sensitive.
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Demo: compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values in Excel
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