text comparion in multiple workbooks

[Dan_B]

Hi Everyone

I've scoured Google for an answer but because I don't know specifically how to word it I get lots of pages on using data validation instead of what I want

What I'm looking for is a macro/command that will compare a list of column headers in one workbook which contains the same column headers as the 4 other workbooks to see if the column headers are in the same order and provide a summary report showing that they match

so if workbook 1 has columns apple, banana, carrot, pear

the report workbook would have have the same list and would show as yes, yes, yes, yes for the ones that match

however if workbook 1 has columns apple, banana, pear, carrot

the report workbook would have yes, yes, no, no as they are not in the same order anymore

Ideally it would just show a final text box summary saying "All columns Match" or "Error - some columns do not match"

Sounds complicated to someone like me and I've tried to figure out/learn the STRCOMP to see if it works but my skills are way below par. Happy to learn myself if anyone has a decent link to something similar

Thanks for any and all help

Dan_B

[gbeats101]

How far have you got regarding opening the workbooks you want to check?

once you have got each one to open as needed all you need to do is get the 1st row of each one and compare it (assuming the first row contains the headers).

Simple array would work for this so the first thing to do is get the order of the headers your going to compare against, if this was in a sheet (template sheet with the headers in there as needed) you can do

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ok so now its just a matter of opening a workbook (just let me know if you need that part) and then looking through the sheets
lets assume you just want to check sheet1, and the header row is always the first row of the block of data

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ok so just a little something to look at, there are many ways to do it i just did it this way. just have a look through and if it makes sense just give it a try.

[dflak]

Actually, I can think of a way to do this without VB.

Start with a blank sheet in either the master or separate workbook. Make links to the cells containing the header in the other workbooks. Then you can visually compare them, or set up formulas that evaluate to True / False and do a count of trues or falses for the overall status.