How do I compare 2 text columns & show differences in 3rd?

[Kelli Freeman]

In Excel XP I'm trying to compare two columns and extract the differences in
the 3rd column. For example,

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
ACD ACDI I

Is it possible to perform this function?

 

[Ashish Mathur]

Hi,

In A1, we have the text "acdir" (without quotes) and in B1 we have the text
"acdirtyu" (without quotes). In cell C1 enter the following array formula
(Ctrl+Shift+Enter)

=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(A1,B1)),MID(B1,COUNTA(MID($A$1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1))+1,10))

Please check various combinations to see how it works. If you have any
further queries, please feel free to contact me at (e-mail address removed).

Regards,

Ashish Mathur

 

[darkwood]

not that i know of. What is the purpose of doing that? There may be a
way to format the text so that it can be manipulated, but depends on
the purpose.

For example:

if the difference is always at the end of the data string, there would
be an easy solution, especially if the data strings are all the same
length.