Finding Duplicates in Excel

June 12, 2009 7:44 AM

I need an Excel conditional formatting formula for locating dups within a two-column row.

Okay, I have a spreadsheet with two columns (A & B)

A = 1,500 Traditional hanzi
B = 1,500 Simplified hanzi

eg:

返 返
支 支
括 括
憂 忧
志 志

About 80% of the time, A = B. Sometimes, the Simplified is different than the Traditional. Sometimes, it's wildly different. I'm not worried about those -- I can spot them easily enough. But sometimes, the difference is VERY subtle.

Thus, I need an Excel formula that will compare the two and (maybe) change the background color of Column 2 if it is different than Column 1.

posted by RavinDave to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: Select cell B1, go to Format>Conditional Formatting, set condition one to "Cell Value Is" "not equal to" "=$A1" (note the $ for the A but not the 1). Copy cell B1, paste special to the rest of row B, select "Formats" for the paste special type.
posted by Perplexity at 7:48 AM on June 12, 2009

(Forgot to include the step where you actually make the conditional format condition do something (change color or whatever) before you copy it.
posted by Perplexity at 7:49 AM on June 12, 2009

Response by poster: Aww, man! You already caught 6 mistakes I made!

I was frogging around and kept getting erratic results.

Thanks for the help!
posted by RavinDave at 8:22 AM on June 12, 2009