Hi, Nick;
If you want to compare the first 10 characters of A2 to the first 10 of B2,
then in another cell your formula is:
=EXACT(LEFT(A2,10),LEFT(B2,10))
Returns TRUE if the first 10 characters of each match, FALSE if they don't.
Regards,
IanRoy.

"nick" wrote:

I have two list. One was generated from an old DOS program using the
print to file option the other is a regular list in Excel. The problem
is the list that was generated using the print to file option
truncated the NAME field to 19 characters. The other list has full
name. The question is is it possible to compare the values of cells
using the first 10 characters or is there a way to truncate the full
name file to 19 characters then compare the two?

Any help would be appriciated.