Merging two data sets using approximate matches

Hello Everyone!

I have two sets of data, with identical structures.

Set 1:

fruit | expiry | price
pear | 2014/06/11 | 2.56
pear | 2014/06/19 | 2.14
apple | 2014/06/05 | 1.12
pear | 2014/06/23 | 2.33
apple | 2014/06/02 | 1.13


Set 2:

fruit | expiry | price
pear | 2014/06/12 | 2.56
pear | 2014/06/21 | 2.14
apple | 2014/06/06 | 1.12
pear | 2014/06/24 | 2.33
apple | 2014/06/04 | 1.13

fruits and price do always match.

the expiry date is either one or two days late for the second data set, and I am trying to match the records into one,

example: list 1 pear | 2014/06/11 | 2.56 and pear | 2014/06/12 | 2.56 are a match

and I am trying to get Excel to merge them into: pear | 2014/06/11 | 2014/06/12 | 2.56

any idea on how to proceed with VBA?

For the above two sets, the output should be:

fruit | expiry1 | expiry 2 | price
pear | 2014/06/11 | 2014/06/12 | 2.56
pear | 2014/06/19 | 2014/06/21 | 2.14
apple | 2014/06/05 | 2014/06/06 | 1.12
pear | 2014/06/23 | 2014/06/24 | 2.33
apple | 2014/06/02 | 2014/06/04 | 1.13

Thanks!

Hello Natefarm!

The data is on the same sheet, the range should be the entire columns (example: A:A, B:B etc.).

The results can be on a separate sheet.

fruit will always match 1:1

expiry will always match with a margin of -2 to +2 days

price are also theoretically 1:1 matches.