Formula to find a similar match

[hyruleramone]

Hello,

I have a huge list of I items i need to look for if they're similar, for instance:

I have 'Money Spent' in column 'A' and in column 'B' I have 'Cash Spent' or 'Spending'. How can I tell Excel to look for what I have in column 'A' and bring me a match if something similar was found in column 'B'?

For this matter; 'Money Spent' and 'Cash Spent' should be a match because they're similar.

 

[crazydragon84]

I don't think there is a way for excel to know that money spent and cash spent are similar unless you have like mapping of all things that can be grouped as "similar". The only thing it would know to do is find for certain number of strings that are same (e.g. SPEN are in all three of the examples gave, but then it may pick up anything else that has those 4 letters as similar even if its not).