vlookup partial string

[MER360]

Hi everyone,

I have pulling my hair out searching Google all morning trying to find a way to search company names that don't exactly match.

I often need to compare company names that are spelt in many different ways i.e. Acme Inc or ACME Ltd...

If I could search upon the first 3-4 characters and use wildcards... I could then eyeball the results...I just don't know the formula or best way to do this...

Many thanks

 

[Peter Thompson]

Try using a wildcard in an advanced filter. I googled this and the site below seems to offer a good step by step explanation of how to do this.

http://www.contextures.com/xladvfilter01.html#WildCard

 

[sanrv1f]

Welcome to the board,

You can try Alan's fuzzy lookup

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?p=955462#post955462

 

[MER360]

Thanks for your quick response...

I'm out of my depth with fuzzy logic, but that is exactly what I need to learn - is there a simplier method I could use today?

Thanks

 

[paulrit]

you can create a helper column and put the formula and drag it down. If acme is there it will tell "yes", else "no". Then you can filter it. But every time you need to change the formula, for different company.

G8==IF(LEFT(E8,4)="acme", "Yes", "no")

<TABLE style="WIDTH: 144pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=192><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 48pt" span=3 width=64><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" height=20 width=64>acme rr</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" width=64></TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" width=64>Yes</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" height=20>dsdsd</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8"></TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8">no</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" height=20>ACME KL</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8"></TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8">Yes</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" height=20>dfdf</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8"></TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8">no</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8" height=20>ACME II</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8"></TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8; BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8">Yes</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[MER360]

Thanks for your advice;

Ideally I would like to be able to tell vlookup to find the first three letters of a company name in List A to that anywhere in the company name column in List B.

Any ideas... <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>