Formula/Statement that is variable and not absolute

[gswann]

Hi All,

Just need some advice, I've done some research and I can't seem to find the right answer, I'm getting to the point where I don't believe there is a way to do what I'd like in excel unless it's manually.

I'm looking to compare 2 lists, a customer list (20k records) and a supplier list (2k records). I'd like to search for the supplier name within the customer list and if it exists then return a value of true or false. for the purpose of removing the data from the customer list. However, my complication is that it can't be based on an absolute. For example, if we have ABC Limited in the customer list and A B C Limited or even ABC Ltd in the supplier list, I'd like it to return a TRUE and not false.

Because of that, using vlookup, match and isnumber/search doesn't seem to have the desired effect as they are absolute statements. I almost need a solution of checking to see if the sequence of characters matches but ignoring the variables of Limited to Ltd.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks
Gary

 

[JazzSP8]

You might need to use Fuzzy Lookup for this; https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=15011

 

[gswann]

Thanks JazzSP8 I'll give that a try!