Can't find difference between two cells

[Gfletch]

I am having trouble finding out why there is a difference between two cells that appear to contain the same thing. Each cell contains "Mickey Mantle". I checked by using LEN but it says both cells contain 13 characters. I tried using EXACT, and EXACT returns a FALSE result. Then I used the following formula:

[TABLE="width: 319"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="class: xl65, width: 319"]=MID(B5,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(B5))),1) and
[TABLE="width: 319"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="class: xl65, width: 319"]=MID(D5,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(D5))),1)[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

where B5 and D5 each contain "Mickey Mantle"...and this says that the M is different...but I do not know why.

The problem is that I have a data base and need to be able to sort every players career by his Name and then the year of each of his seasons...but these 'differences' cause problems.

Thanks for any help.[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[Gfletch]

try
=exact(clean(b5),D5)
then =exact(b5,clean(d5))
what do you get?

They both return FALSE

 

[konew1]

I eliminated all but one character, the same character, from both cells. comparing each to the other I got TRUE on everything except for the space.

I did put the =MID etc - got a return of TRUE

Did you do this? Did you get TRUE on each of 13 rows?

Question: Did you put =MID($B$5,ROW()-4,1)=MID($D$5,ROW()-4,1) into row 5 of an empty column and copy down?
What result did you get in row 5? What result did you get in row 6? what in each of the rows up to row 19?

 

[Gfletch]

Did you do this? Did you get TRUE on each of 13 rows?

Question: Did you put =MID($B$5,ROW()-4,1)=MID($D$5,ROW()-4,1) into row 5 of an empty column and copy down?
What result did you get in row 5? What result did you get in row 6? what in each of the rows up to row 19?

I got True on each row, except on the 7th row. You must be on to something, but I don't understand what it is.

 

[konew1]

The 7th character is the space between words. If that is a character that causes problem in several text strings it could be that the space in one of the data cells is a special type of space, Example: in word you can enter a space with Ctrl+Shift+Space so that two words separated by a space never split to different lines (Here I use it for place names that have a space, "Te Puke" etc)
Excel sees these "spaces" as different. You need find which is the genuine space. Then copy the Looks-like-a-space character and use find and replace to convert to regular spaces

 

[Gfletch]

The 7th character is the space between words. If that is a character that causes problem in several text strings it could be that the space in one of the data cells is a special type of space, Example: in word you can enter a space with Ctrl+Shift+Space so that two words separated by a space never split to different lines (Here I use it for place names that have a space, "Te Puke" etc)
Excel sees these "spaces" as different. You need find which is the genuine space. Then copy the Looks-like-a-space character and use find and replace to convert to regular spaces

Thanks, that's a real good idea. I really appreciate the time you put into this.