Is it possible to find out if any part of a text string appears in another text string?

**Lmel0611** · 03-18-2015, 01:00 AM

Hello,
First time user here so apologies if I get anything wrong.
I have a column of names in sheet 1 and a column of names in sheet 2, I am trying to ascertain if I can somehow get an indication that there is something within the 2 cell that matches.

Column A of sheet 1 contains the name Diane Greenshields, Column A of sheet 2 contains the name DR & BW Greenshields.

I basically want a true or false answer to if they contain similar enough text strings to be considered a match so I can apply it to an entire column not just one entry (as I know if it was just one entry I could use ISNUMBER(SEARCH() and gain a result using "Greenshields" as the "Find text" component of that formula).

I hope this makes sense and again apologies if it doesn't. The data I'm using is sensitive so I cannot attach even a small part of it sorry.
Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

**6StringJazzer** · 03-18-2015, 11:55 AM

"similar enough text strings to be considered a match" is more complicated than you think it is.

I know of no way to do this with standard Excel built-in functions (although somebody else may know how).

This could be done by creating a user-defined function with VBA. However, you need to think over what kind of a match you are looking for.

For example, what if the first cell has

Diane Greenshields

and the second has

Greenfield & Co.

Well, part of the first one matches part of the second one, but I'm sure you don't want to consider that to be a match.

If you want to match only if a whole word in one matches a whole word in another, you are going to get matches like this:

Dan Mitchell
Fred Mitchell
Mitchell Sanders

Do you know exactly what constitutes a match?

**Lmel0611** · 03-18-2015, 07:30 PM

Thanks 6 String,
Yes I do want the whole word to be a match because I can then use the information from another column (example membership number and/or email) and an IF(AND/OR statement to ensure the match is true.

Thanks again

Is it possible to find out if any part of a text string appears in another text string?

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