Differences in 2 spreadsheets

[Michele]

We have 2 spreadsheets that have a lot of data in them. They were originally
the same, but one was changed at one point. Now we don't know where the
changes were made. Yes, I know, tracking would have been a good option, but
is there anything now that can help us find the differences?

Thank you very much.

Michele Cole

 

[ak_edm]

This might be a crappy way of doing this, but this is all that's coming to my
mind, and it would be fast. I'd open a blank worksheet and place the
following formula into it. Now keep in mind that this formula is dependant
on whether or not the spreadhseets are part of the same workbook or not, etc.
It doesnt really matter but it changes the way the formula is written. But
the basic formula is :

IF cell A1 of spreadsheet #1 = cell A1 of spreadsheet #2 then "", else "X"
(ANYONE WANT TO GIVE THE PROPER WAY TO FORMAT THIS FUNCTION? THANKS )

Then I'd copy that formula in the new worksheet to all the other cells for
the size of the spreadsheets. The result should be instant. An "X" will
indicate any cell thats different between the two spreadsheets. If an "X"
appears in cell M15, then cell M15 is different between the two spreadsheets.

- Eric

 

[Dave Peterson]

It depends on what you're looking for.

This may help if you want to compare two worksheets and do a cell by cell
comparison (A1 with A1, x99 with x99, ...)

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/whatsnew.aspx
look for compare.xla

======
But as soon as a row/column is inserted or deleted, then the results go to heck.

If you're only looking at values in two worksheets, you may be able to save the
worksheets as comma separated and then use another program to compare these two
..CSV files.

MSWord has this ability. And there are free versions of file comparisons that
you can find via google.