hello group,

Excel vlookup works only if its an exact match,data i have is not in the
same format.For eg comparing John matthews & Mr. Matthews John.Thus there is
no way i can use vlookup as each time the format varies.Can any one suggest a
method to match these fields using some excel functions

You can use SEARCH (or FIND if case is important) to see if some text
appears in some other text. So, you could look to see if the surname
is contained within the search cell. However, you might have several
"Matthews", so you would also have to account for the forename(s). It
would be better to ensure that all data is in the same format.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Jun 16, 8:03*am, matching names in different formats <matching
names in different wrote:
hello group,

Excel vlookup works only if its an exact match,data i have is not in the
same format.For eg comparing John matthews & Mr. Matthews John.Thus there is
no way i can use vlookup as each time the format varies.Can any one suggest a
method to match these fields using some excel functions