you could try

=OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(MID(B2,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(B 2)-4)),5),A2)))
array entered (Cntrl+Shift+Enter) in cell C2 and copy it down.

It won't pick up on the transposition of the first name initial (if that is
the deciding character)

for example:
"c edmo" would not match "edmo c" because only 4 consecutive letters would
match.



"via135 via OfficeKB.com" wrote:

hi!

i am having text data thru A1:B6

col A ...............col B
john ambrose....ambrose j
edmond c.........c edmon
arthur a............morais p
w peter william..peter
williams john.....w john
ambrose...........rose j

i need to compare the lists and shortlist the rows
having the unmatched columns with some flag in col C.

the criteria is if some text string *minimum with 5 characters*
in either column should be matched with the other column!

thus the result should be as under:

arthur a..................morais p
ambrose.................rose j

hope that explained the things well!

any help pl?

-via135

--
Message posted via http://www.officekb.com