Excel Dummy. Need help merging two data sets

[ckenyon21]

I'm a excel rookie. This may be obvious to you, but I'd love help.


I have two spreadhseets and I need to combine the data onto one. There is no match key or unique identifying number.


So sheet one has 2000 companies and a few columns of data like contact info (Official company name, address). Spreadsheet two has company name and address and a lot of other data (was put together by a bunch of sales people so the data is dirty and "not official").


I could do a VLookup but I could manually tell that many of the company names are not the same. Maybe one has Bob's Company and the other has Bob's company Inc, for example. Or worse, maybe one has Bob's Company and the other has Robert's Company Inc.


Do I first use concatenate to make some kind of match key out of part of the name and the address? or is there and easier way to compare non-exact match data?


Sorry if this was too easy and embarrassing!

 

[dgavilanes]

If I had that situation, I will create a unique identifying number that I could use it with both.


Add a new column, and use a filter on information you know and add a unique number each time you filter it, do you follow me?


Example


ID # Co. name

1 Robert Co

1 Bob's company


Can you post a sample?


Dennis

 

[dgavilanes]

If I had that situation, I will create a unique identifying number that I could use it with both.


Add a new column, and use a filter on information you know and add a unique number each time you filter it, do you follow me?


Example


ID # Co. name

1 Robert Co

1 Bob's company


Can you post a sample?


Dennis