Dave, thanks. It almost worked. However, for some reason, I get only "0"
(false) though I know there to be "true" combinations present. Does it
matter what the formatting is in the cells (i.e., general, number, etc.)?
When you say "you can only use the whole column in xl2007" do you mean I have
to have xl2007 to do what you illustrated below, or that I must select the
entire column(s) to perform the function?
Brent

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

In E1:
=ISNUMBER(MATCH(1,(A1=$C$1:$C$100)*(B1=$D$1:$D$100 ),0))
and drag down

This is an array formula. Hit ctrl-shift-enter instead of enter. If you do it
correctly, excel will wrap curly brackets {} around your formula. (don't type
them yourself.)

Adjust the range to match--but you can only use the whole column in xl2007.

brents18 wrote:

I am trying to compare four columns of text, say A-D, such that if the paired
combination of cells A2 and B2 can be found as a combination of the same pair
text ANYWHERE in columns C and D, I would get "true". I.e., I want to search
for all the A+B combos in corresponding C+D columns
example:

A B C D E
1 oak tree bird dog true
2 gold brick oak brick false
3 dumb bunny oak tree false

The process found the combination for A1+B1 in C3+D3; I would want to do
the same for gold+brick and dumb+bunny, etc.etc. Geez I'm worn out trying
different combos of "logic."

--

Dave Peterson