data merge problem

[anna.hovasapian]

Hi,

I have two data sets, set A and set B of numberical identifiers. B is a subset of A. Set A is about 20,000 lines and set B is a bit less. What I need to do is find all the identifiers in A that are not in B. The second part of this problem is that the identifiers of B are not the same in A, however the B identifier is embedded within the A identifier. So if the identifier for B is 234 the identifier for A is probably something like 000234000.

Solving the problem with sorting doesn't help much because I have to review about 20,000 lines.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[Marcol]

Hi anna.hovasapian

Welcome to the forum

You would do best to post a sample workbook showing your Sheet Layout with typical data and perhaps Before and After examples.

It should clearly illustrate your problem and not contain any sensitive data.


Cheers

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[anna.hovasapian]

Thanks Marcol.

I'm starting from scratch and don't really hav e a layout. Plus the layout doesn't really matter for my purposes. I just have 2 columns of number identifiers and need to figure out a way to indentify data that is in Set A but not in Set B.

Hope that helps.

[Marcol]

Without some typical data, problems like this become an endless guessing game.
Mockup a few typical examples and post them.

What and where are the identifiers?
You say

So if the identifier for B is 234 the identifier for A is probably something like 000234000.

Experience in this forum and elsewhere suggests............."but probably not"

[anna.hovasapian]

I can't actually do an attachment. But this is a very simplied version of data. Basically I need to know that 123000, 12500, 12600, 12800, etc are not in YYY column.


XXX YYY
12300 124
12400 127
12500 234
12600 235
12700 236
12800 345
23400 346
23500 347
23600
23700
34500
34600
34700