I need to match part numbers from two databases and relevant information like descriptions

I'm hopeful that this forum will provide me with an answer to the difficulty I have had in matching two databases.
I'm not sure which forum to post to for my problem - it may be the functions forum or database forums, from the help files, I have decided to start here.

Have two databases - unfortunately one was created with "text" format for part numbers, the other was created with the "numbers" format. I understand that the "Left" or "Right" function might help with matching the numbers, but I am trying to match both databases (in the same Excel 2007 worksheet).

Essentially, the databases are on the same worksheet and I have two columns to match part numbers to, but also need to expand selection to include the descriptions from one to the other (which is empty). A third "match" would be the cost associated with one database which needs to move to the other as well.

I have been manually trying to edit these files and have found it very, very tedious. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I'll give an example of what I'm doing below for reference.

ItemID VendorName Vendor ItemID Vendor Item Name Unit Cost itemname

000451 451 shoe, diabetic $250 Diabetic Shoe 11D

The difficulty lies in the locations of the information - the merging of these databases is difficult since to match them, I must also match differently formated "part numbers" (text vs number) - I don't have access to the original databases to import into Excel with similar formats/columns.

One database has the headers, the other database has the information I need to match to the empty fields - because of the differing formats, this has become a manual job.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I can sent the excel for review if my description isn't sufficiently clear.

Thanks in advance for any help you can render.


Scott