Data the same but different

[Bill H.]

I have struggled for some time with data that looks the same but when used it
a pivot table it is recognized as different.

Is there a way I can attach a spreadsheet to this post so you can see what I
am talking about?

Thanks for any help.

Bill

 

[Jim Thomlinson]

Generally speaking most of the people around here will not open
attachements... Check out the 8th bullet here.

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/HintsAndTipsForNewsgroupUsers.aspx

 

[Fred Smith]

This is a text only group. However, some people have uploaded to a publicly
available website, then posted the link here, with some success. It's worth
a try.

Regards,
Fred

 

[Dave O]

Some things to look out for:
~ data in a field that appears to be a number, but the field is
formatted as text
~ a leading or trailing space, or two or more spaces in a field that
look like one space
~ an apostrophe in column 1 of a field, common when importing from a
database
~ dates that are entered as text

Dave O
Eschew obfuscation

 

[Herbert Seidenberg]

Will do Excel 2007 PivotTable
if you upload file to:
http://www.mediafire.com

 

[Bill H.]

Thanks, Jim. I understand the issue. I am not sure how else anyone can see
my problem. I will keep working with it.

Bill

 

[Gord Dibben]

Lots of times if something looks the same but is not, you have extra space
somewhere.

Have you investigated that possibility?

You can upload your workbook to one of these sites.

http://www.freefilehosting.net/
http://savefile.com/

After uploading, post the URL.

Someone may have a look at it.



Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Jim Thomlinson]

Post a quick description. You might be surprised. Someone here has probalby
seen what you are having an issue with.

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Bill,

One easy way to look at data variants is to apply a data filter to the
column.

Then just use the drop down arrow - if there are two "Bill H." entries, for
example, then one has an extra space, spelling, capitalization, or other
issue, and you can use the filter to show both, and use multi-cell entry to
fill those cells with the desired variant.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP