Formula to search a Column with Cell content from another Column?

I'm trying to compare two columns of user names against each other so I can delete obsolete users in the 2nd column.

IE Column A has:
JaneDoe
JohnDoe
JaneSmith

Column C has:
JaneDoe
JohnDoe
JohnSmith
JaneSmith


I've tried =IF(A:A=C1, "Keep", "Delete") and that doesn't work because it's looking for "=C1" in the A column. I have also tried =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("JaneDoe",A:A)),"OK", "Not OK") which does work in searching the entire column A but I have over 900 rows in both columns and don't want to edit each individual search where JaneDoe is put and want it to do a cell reference from C instead.

Any suggestions?

=iferror(if(countif(A:A,$C1)>1,"Delete","Keep"),"Keep")
iferror: if it does not find C1 in A:A the formula would result in error.
>1 there is more than one C1 in column A:A
$C1 the $ makes the C fixed - if you copy this down the formula, row 2 would show $C2 etc...

Originally Posted by CRIMEDOG

>1 there is more than one C1 in column A:A
$C1 the $ makes the C fixed - if you copy this down the formula, row 2 would show $C2 etc...

The results I get from directly pasting your suggestion = Keep for all.

What I'm looking for is to make the "C1" not actually search for C1 but the contents of what is in the column/field of C1. IE JaneDoe

Originally Posted by oeldere

The result is in the red cells.

See the file.

Woah! Nicely done. I would not have even thought of that route. Thank you.

@ GabeZ

Welcome to the forum.

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Thanks.

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Thanks Cutter. I'll make sure to do so in the future.