Select the Similarity Threshold you want Fuzzy Lookup to use (I find 0.85 is a good starting place): Select the tables (the lists we just turned in to tables) you would like to compare: Select the Fuzzy Lookup tool from the Fuzzy Lookup tab. Repeat this process to create the other tables you might want to compare. Use Ctrl + T to turn the selection into a table, making a mental note of the table number that was assigned: Install the latest version of Fuzzy Lookup (Google search for installation instructions).Ĭonfirm that you have the Fuzzy Lookup tab in Excel. This is a quick-start guide for using this tool to make a simple comparison between two lists. Note: This is a not a ‘deep dive’ into Fuzzy Lookup tool settings. This tool is useful if you have a big list of names that were not entered in a consistent manner, or if some entries are abbreviated and others are not. Fuzzy Lookup returns a probability score for each pair, which means you can quickly sort out, edit, and compare lists like these. You can see how each entry on the left is technically different than the corresponding entry to the right, but Fuzzy Lookup recognized that there is a chance they really mean the same thing. To illustrate the main functionality of Fuzzy Lookup, here are a few examples that this tool identified as similar (similarity scores range from 0 to 1, with 1 being the highest similarity possible): Think of it as a beefier version of VLOOKUP that is more flexible and even easier to use.įuzzy Lookup has given me the ability to quickly make sense of unorganized client data and draw conclusions that otherwise would have taken hours to discover. Fuzzy Lookup utilizes advanced mathematics to calculate the probability that what it finds matches up with your search entry, which means the tool works even when characters (numbers, letters, punctuation) do not match up exactly.

Have you ever attempted to use VLOOKUP in Excel but been frustrated when it does not return any matches? Developed by Microsoft and available for free, Fuzzy Lookup is an Excel add-on that takes an input, searches for the best match it can find, and returns that best match along with a similarity rating.

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