The return value would depend on whether you are basing it on the 1st or
second string.
What value would you expect for "BBZ526" and "BB26" then ?

You could maybe use some "padding" character in the return string, so it is
as long as the longer string.

NickHK

"Odin" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi NickHK, the compared strings could be of different lengths. As i
already have columns with the string lengths, in your example I would
expect D2 to still return "Z5" in positions "34".

The binary string solution to cell E2 is interesting but in your
example would that return "110011" or just "1100"?

Odin

NickHK wrote:
Are all the compared strings the same lengths ?
If not, what would you expect from "BB26" and "BBZ526" ?

How about if you just returned a binary string, representing each
character
?
e.g. "BB26" and "BBZ5" returns "1100"
But this depend somewhat on your answer to the first question.

NickHK

"Odin" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All,

I have asked here before and on other fora for help on the following
problem ( i am a total novice at VB and Macros):

I have a large excel spreadsheet with alpha-numeric data. I want to be
able to compare two cells in the same row and return the disimilar
characters in another cell(s).

e.g. I have in cell B2, "BB26" and in cell C2, "BBZ5". I need to
compare the cell C2 to cell B2 and return the disimilar characters in
cell D2 which in this case would be the characters "Z5".

If possible i would like to specify in cell E2 the positions of the
differing characters i.e. cell E2, "34" representing the 3rd and 4th
positions of the disimilar characters.

If there is a better and more elegant solution to this problem that
would provide a similar solution, i would appreciate your help very
much.

Thank you in advance.