Cross reference?

[soothsayer17]

Hey all,

I am a very inexperienced excel user and need some help. My friends at school weren't quite sure how to do what I am looking to do so here I am. I am a history major and compiling prayer lists for my professor. I have two large lists, one about 800 names long (prayers for the living) and then another substantial one for the dead. I have to mark on the list for the living if they also received prayers after they died. So, my question: is there a way I can run the list of the dead against the living and have it tell me which names appear on both? Thanks or any help.

[darkyam]

Let's say the dead list is on a sheet called "Dead" and the living on "Living" and that both lists start in A1 of their respective sheets. In B1 of Dead, have =IFERROR(Match(A1,Living!A:A,0),"No","Yes") where Yes designates prayers for both. This, of course, assumes that the names are unique and you don't have a living John Smith and a dead John Smith who are different people.

[Cutter]

There's the COUNTIF() route as well:

http://www.excelfunctions.net/ExcelCountif.html

[darkyam]

Good call. I'm making this more complex than it needs to be.