To compare two Excel lists to find the difference, you can use the following three methods: 1. Use conditional format to highlight different items, set rules through the COUNTIF function, and intuitively display the differences between columns A and columns B; 2. Use the VLOOKUP function to list missing items, identify "mismatch" data in the auxiliary column, and achieve two-way comparison; 3. Use the "Delete Duplicate" function to merge the two columns and extract unique values, and combine the COUNTIF function to judge unique entries. These three methods are suitable for scenarios where quickly view, detailed analysis and efficient processing of large amounts of data.

Comparing two Excel lists to find the difference does not require too complicated methods. If you have two similar lists, such as customer list, product number or employee information, and want to quickly know which data are different, the following methods can be easily done.

Highlight different items using conditional format

This is one of the most intuitive ways to match between two single columns:

• Select the first list you want to compare (for example, column A)
• Click the "Start" tab → "Conditional Format" → "New Rule" → "Use formulas to determine the cells to format"
• Enter a formula similar to =NOT(COUNTIF(B:B, A1)) (assuming you are comparing column A and column B)
• Set a color format and click OK

In this way, the cells in column A whose corresponding value cannot be found in column B will be highlighted. On the other hand, you can also operate it again to see which ones are in column B that are not in column A.

Use the VLOOKUP function to find missing items

If you want to list the differences separately instead of just looking at the colors, VLOOKUP is a good tool:

• Suppose you are comparing column A and column B, you can enter the title "Match Whether" in C1, and then enter in C2:

  

   =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2, B:B, 1, FALSE)), "Mis match", "")

• Drag down the fill, and all data in column A that does not appear in column B will be marked as "Missive"

You can also change the direction and check whether column B appears in column A in column D, so that you can compare in two directions.

Use the "Delete Duplicate" function to find unique values

If you want to filter out the unique entries in two lists directly, this method is more efficient:

1. Merge the two lists into one column (such as copy and paste into column C)
2. Select this column → Data tab → Delete duplicates
3. Uncheck other columns, only the current column can be retained → OK

At this time, Excel will tell you how many duplicates have been deleted, and the rest is all unique values. You can use the COUNTIF function to determine which ones appear only once.

These methods have their own scenarios: Highlight differences are suitable for quick viewing, VLOOKUP is suitable for detailed analysis, and deleting duplicates is suitable for extracting unique values when processing large amounts of data. Basically all that is, it's not difficult but practical.

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