Skip to main content
 

How to compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values in Excel?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2024-08-27

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.

a screenshot of the first column lista screenshot of the second column list


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:
a screenshot of using formula to find missing values in the first column list

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:
a screenshot showing all missing values in a helper column

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.
a screenshot of highlighting the cells in the second column list that missing in the first 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.

a screenshot showing a different formula a screenshot of the missing values

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.

Kutools for Excel - Supercharge Excel with over 300 essential tools. Enjoy a full-featured 30-day FREE trial with no credit card required! Get It Now

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.
a screenshot of configuring the Select Same & Different Cells dialog box

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.

a screenshot showing the number of cells have been selecteda screenshot showing the corresponding selected cells in the first list

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.

Kutools for Excel - Supercharge Excel with over 300 essential tools. Enjoy a full-featured 30-day FREE trial with no credit card required! Get It Now


Demo: compare two columns for (highlighting) missing values in Excel

 

Kutools for Excel: Over 300 handy tools at your fingertips! Start your 30-day free trial with no feature limitations today. Download Now!

Related articles:


Best Office Productivity Tools

🤖 Kutools AI Aide: Revolutionize data analysis based on: Intelligent Execution   |  Generate Code  |  Create Custom Formulas  |  Analyze Data and Generate Charts  |  Invoke Kutools Functions
Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup    Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar    Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells    Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...


Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!