Sort Columns or MPN that are similiar

[plank22]

Hello,

Looking for a way to sort MPN in column A with similar MPN in column B and align for editing.

I have multiple suppliers of the same products and we are looking to make the switch from one to the other. They carry the same products but list some of their MPN/SKU's the same and some different. We will have to edit all the ones \that are different to make the change to the new supplier so we can update price, stock etc..

Note: There will be thousands in one spreadsheet.

Example
Current supplier: 123456-32D
New supplier: 12345632D

There could also be more characters added to the SKU or even space. Just looking to get them lined up close to manually review and edit.

Any help on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

[dflak]

It has to be done manually, but there is hope. Here is the process I suggest.

First make a pivot table from the original data and in the row section put the SKU. This will produce a list of unique SKUs sorted in alphabetical order.

Next Create an Excel table with Two Columns: Old Name and New Name

Copy the results of the pivot table to the Old Name column.

Now go down the list and make "eyeball corrections" for the new names.

Then back in the original data (which you should also have in an Excel Table), make a helper column using VLOOKUP to get the new name based on the old name.

Finally, copy the results of the helper column to the SKU column in the original data and paste special values only.