Similar vs. Exact comparison

I'd like to compare two cells (or more possibly) for similarity vs. exact.
e.g. a cell with the i.d. of 'johnsmith' is not exactly equal to 'johnsmith2'.

Is there a way in excel to compare two cells and see if they are similar?
Maybe even some kind of confidence level flag? (or is this a fantasy?)

thanks,
dave

You can use the Like operator with a wildcard character. E.g.,


Dim S As String
Dim T As String
S = "johnsmith"
T = "johnsmith1"
Debug.Print T Like "*" & S & "*"


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com





"dave in Toronto" <daveinToronto@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message
news:78CAA296-11C0-4714-893E-0103205AA60E@microsoft.com...
> I'd like to compare two cells (or more possibly) for similarity
> vs. exact.
> e.g. a cell with the i.d. of 'johnsmith' is not exactly equal
> to 'johnsmith2'.
>
> Is there a way in excel to compare two cells and see if they
> are similar?
> Maybe even some kind of confidence level flag? (or is this a
> fantasy?)
>
> thanks,
> dave
>

Nothing built in like Soundex

http://www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/tips/tip77.htm
John Walkenbach's page with sample VBA code.

but you can use wildcards with some functions

Excel does have the EXACT function which will test for an exact match.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy



"dave in Toronto" <daveinToronto@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:78CAA296-11C0-4714-893E-0103205AA60E@microsoft.com...
> I'd like to compare two cells (or more possibly) for similarity vs. exact.
> e.g. a cell with the i.d. of 'johnsmith' is not exactly equal to
'johnsmith2'.
>
> Is there a way in excel to compare two cells and see if they are similar?
> Maybe even some kind of confidence level flag? (or is this a fantasy?)
>
> thanks,
> dave
>

If the "like" comparison isnt enough,
Here is a link to a page that has a VB function to calculate the similarity
between two strings. This is a way to determine how closely matched any two
strings are. It works be determining the number of incremental edits
required to transform the first string into the second string.

http://www.merriampark.com/ld.htm

--
Regards,
John


"dave in Toronto" wrote:

> I'd like to compare two cells (or more possibly) for similarity vs. exact.
> e.g. a cell with the i.d. of 'johnsmith' is not exactly equal to 'johnsmith2'.
>
> Is there a way in excel to compare two cells and see if they are similar?
> Maybe even some kind of confidence level flag? (or is this a fantasy?)
>
> thanks,
> dave
>