I'd insert a helper column and extract the first 19 (or 10 characters):

=left(a1,19)
and drag down.

Once you have the two columns you need to compare, I'd look at some of the ways
Chip Pearson suggests at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/duplicat.htm

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.

--

Dave Peterson