Partial Matching In Excel?

[kstuffer]

I've recently taken up a project for my internship that I thought would be fairly simple. Basically I have a list of companies with email addresses and another list without. I want to match the companies with email addresses with the companies without based on their name, then combine the data. I then realized that some company names were written differently. Heres an example

List A | List B
Company abc | XyZ co.
Company xyz | RJS and Company
RJS & Co. | ABC company

What would be the best approach to solving this? I was thinking something that would match words then spit out a match percentage then anything about a certain percentage would count as a match.

Thanks!

 

[sulakvea]

hi, and welcome to the board

is VBA an option? either a UDF (a custom function thru VBA), or just a macro

 

[kstuffer]

hi, and welcome to the board

is VBA an option? either a UDF (a custom function thru VBA), or just a macro

Well. I can get by in excel but am no means an expert. I can read programming code, never tried vba though. I mean as long as it works I'm not opposed. Whats your strategy?

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

Have a look at:

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195635

 

[sulakvea]

no worries - you dont have to know VBA, thats what this forum is for

give me some time, i will write it up

 

[kstuffer]

Have a look at:

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195635

Thanks!

no worries - you dont have to know VBA, thats what this forum is for

give me some time, i will write it up

Awesome, thanks!

Just a little side thing. I made a thread in the lounge and was looking for your thoughts as well

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=475826

Thanks again!

 

[sulakvea]

Aladin's post is very useful. try it out and let us know how it goes. seems pretty straightforward.

regarding your other Q about what excel can do for you in life, etc - depends on what you are planning on doing. the company i work for, i would say 99% of professional employees dont really know much about Excel, but they do get by, somehow. however, knowing Excel can speed up things for you a great deal, thus providing a "competitive advantage" if u will in a corporate world. anything that has to do with data, manipulation, analysis, etc - you will see how much faster you will do things knowing excel well. you will just stand out in a crowd.

and as for learning - i would say this forum is your best bet. keep reading, posting your problems, and also try solving other peoples problems, regardless of how limited your knowledge may be at this point. in couple months you will know excel better than most full-time employees in wherever you're interning, i promise