Howdy folks. Jeff here, bringing you a Public Service Announcement: Thanks to the magic of VBA , Structured PivotTable References are coming to a PivotTable near you!
Structured References for PivotTables? So what? Well, because PivotTables are the best bit of ‘old’ Excel, and Tables are the best thing about ‘new’ Excel, and it’s about time their strengths were brought together:
- Tables magically expand to accommodate anything you put in them. Even better, because of the automated Dynamic Named Ranges built into Tables – called Structured Table References – any Formulas, Charts, Data Validation lists, or conditional formatting formulas that point to that table will instantly be updated with the latest data. And any PivotTables that point to that table will automatically include the new data whenever you refresh them. (Read more here).
- PivotTables allow you to do serious yet effortless number crunching without the need for a single formula. Just as well, because the kinds of formulas you need to replicate what a PivotTable can do easily are often mind-bogglingly complex, and very resource intensive. So using a PivotTable instead of formulas means that people that inherit your spreadsheet are less likely to struggle to follow what you’re doing, and the spreadsheet is less likely to suffer from slow recalculation issues. (Although yes, you will have to refresh that PivotTable from time to time. But that’s a small price to pay.) But there’s a problem with PivotTables: they don’t have any kind of inbuilt Dynamic Named Ranges like Tables do. And so because their structure is very likely to change whenever new data is added or a user decides to filter or rearrange the order or number of field displayed, then any formulas that point at PivotTable ranges will have to be changed manually. (With the exception of a single cell in the Data area referenced by the GETPIVOTDATA() function). So PivotTables are great for getting a result, but lousy for passing on those results to other parts of your spreadsheet.
Who knows why MS haven’t already implemeted Structured Referencing for PivotTables. But why wait for Microsoft to get around to it. Let’s just do it ourselves!
Download the sample file to see my hand-built Structured PivotTable Referencing in action: DynamicPivotRanges_20141019 unprotected
Open it, enable macros, and you’ll see a PivotTable like this:
Now, click on the arrow to the right of the name box, and you’ll see this:
As you can see, in my implementation of Structured PivotTable References, the automatic name that gets generated is prefixed with the Sheet name for uniqueness and uses a period to separate the Sheetname, PivotTable name, and FieldName. So it differs slightly from the notation that Tables use. But it’s every bit as handy.
For instance, check out what happens when I start typing a formula somewhere:
Awesome: That’s pretty much the same kind of thing I get when I want to reference a Table:
Let’s see if it handles changes in the structure of a PivotTable, shall we? Here, the Pivot is filtered in such a way that only 5 rows of data are returned. I’ve selected the entire State region, so that you can see that this corresponds with the automatically generated Structured PivotTable Reference shown in the Name box:
If I change the City filter to include additional cities, then the data returned grows by a few rows, as you can see below. Check out how the Structured PivotTable Reference automatically updated to accommodate the extra rows:
…and if I change the layout of the PivotTable by bringing in a new field – such as the BloodType field shown below – then as you can see, the Structured PivotTable Reference picks up the change too, and recognizes that the State field has shifted to the right:
If you change the Sheet name, then the SheetName part of the Structured PivotTable References syntax get updated next time the Pivot gets refreshed. And if you change the PivotName, then that part of the Structured PivotTable References syntax gets updated immediately. Unfortunately the same doesn’t occur for changes to PivotField names. So if you change the name of a field, any formulas pointing at the associated Structured Reference will need to be updated. This is shown below:
So there you have it: a proof-of-concept implementation of Structured PivotTable References. I’ve been using this to create complicated non-PivotCharts from Pivots, such as ScatterPlots (which are not supported in PivotCharts), or to serve up data labels to non-Pivot charts. And also to avoid having to have lots of extra formulas down the side of my PivotTable just to handle growth.
Take it for a spin, and let me know your thoughts and suggestions for improvements in the comments. Who knows…someone at Microsoft might even see this, and think “Now why didn’t WE think of that?”
What other functionality is missing from Excel that you’d like to see added?
While the things that Excel can do are cool, Excel often makes us jump through an awful lot of hoops – and click through an awful lot of dialog boxes – in order to actually do them. At the same time, there’s lots of things we routinely do that Excel simply doesn’t provide tools handy tools for. The end result is this: for every millisecond that Excel actually does some real work, we’ve probably spent hours ‘prepping’ it to do it.
Whenever we have to do lots of manual steps in order to leverage Excel’s cool inbuilt functionality, then Excel is programming us. It’s like some kind of epic experiment in behavioral psychology; and we’re the mice. It should be the other way around.
Fortunately, VBA (Macros) gives us the means to program Excel so that it behaves like we want it too. So if there’s something you would like to see added to Excel, let us know in the comments. We’ll see what we can collectively do to make Excel even greater than it already is!
—Edit—
My pal Doug Glancy actually wrote a post on how to do this back in 2012, on my birthday no less. I’d clean forgotten about that post. So be sure to check out Doug’s implementation of this too.
About the author
Yep, that’s me all right. Jeff Weird. Excel Madman.
If you liked this post, then you’ll love my upcoming book: Excel for Superheroes and Evil Geniuses. Keep a lookout for it in early 2015, and check out my posts on this blog or over at Daily Dose of Excel to get a feel for what kinds of things I’ll be covering. The book will give users an excellent overview of how Excel works under the covers, and what tools the interface puts at their fingers right out of the box. And it will ship with free code that will add amazing new features and functionality to Excel. You’ll be an Excel Evil Genius in no time!
Stay tuned…
15 Responses to “Compare 2 Lists Visually and Highlight Matches”
Hi,
I solved this in a little different way.
We have 2 lists, one starts at A1 and other at B1, both are vertical arrays.
First thing is define 2 named ranges, list1 and list2:
list1 refers to "=OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1;0;0;SUMPRODUCT(--(Sheet1!$A$1:$A$1000""));1)"
list2 refers to "=OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1;0;0;SUMPRODUCT(--(Sheet1!$B$1:$B$1000""));1)"
this way lists will be dynamically sized when you had or remove elements (you can't have blanks and you can't have more than 1000 elements).
Then I use conditional formatting in column A when this formula is true:
"=NOT(ISERROR(MATCH(A1;list2;0)))"
and "=NOT(ISERROR(MATCH(B1;list1;0)))" to list2.
This way we eliminate the need for auxiliary columns or lists.
Hope you like my way! 😀
Nunes
Simple conditional formatting formula.
Assuming lists vertical lists starting in A1 & B1
To highlight just one column (assume B for example)
Conditional formatting>New Rule>by formula
=MATCH(B1,$A$1:$A$99,0)
Set the cell fill to what ever color you prefer & press OK
To highlight both columns repeat with this formula for cell in column A
=MATCH(A1,$B$1:$B$99,0)
This approach doesn't require named fields or addtl columns
glw
Say I had 1 list in A2:A20 and another in B2:B20.
To format all the items in column A that are repeated in column B I would use the following Conditional Formatting rule.
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,$B$2:$B$20,1,false)),true,false)
All the duplicates are highlighted. It us a very simple example of comparison.
I may be missing something here, but I usually highlight both my lists by holding ctrl eg A1:A20 E10:E40 then choose conditional formatting from the ribbon and then highlight duplicates, and this does it?
Lee, I was perplexed as well. I do the same thing you do with the conditional formating. A drag and click to highlight range and choose highlight duplicates does the trick for me.
I believe these methods are to check if an item from one list also appears in the other list. So if an item mentioned many times in one list if also mentioned in the other list or not.
The Conditional Formatting highlight duplicates feature will do this, but it will also highlight an item if it appears multiple times in the one column or list.
Hi, I would just like to know (if you are willing to share) which image editing program you use to make your image like above, like they are torn apart from bottom? I've been looking for long.
@i48998
Chandoo is on Holidays, but Chandoo uses Paint.Net
Paint.net is a free download available at http://www.paint.net/
.
I use CorelDraw/PhotoPaint
.
We both use the Snipping Tool (a freebe with Win Vista/10)
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We both use Camtasia for doing screen captures to make animated GIFs where you see animation.
Here is how I would accomplish
(1) Define Names: List_1, List_2
(2) =ISNA(MATCH(D4,List_2,0))-1 (Conditional Format formula List_1)
(3) =ISNA(MATCH(D4,List_1,0))-1 (Conditional Format formula List_2)
ISNA will return 1 if NO Match and O if Match by adding a -1 will make: NO Match 0 and Match a -1 which is True
Hi all
this my first Post here
i think we can take Unique List for tow list to know what is not Duplicate By this Array formula
=IFERROR(INDEX($D$6:$D$33,SMALL(IF(ISERROR(MATCH($D$6:$D$33,$B$6:$B$33,0)),ROW($D$6:$D$33)-ROW($D$6)+1),ROWS($J$5:J5))),"")
and this one for Duplicate Value
=IFERROR(INDEX($D$6:$D$33,SMALL(IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH($D$6:$D$33,$B$6:$B$33,0)),ROW($D$6:$D$33)-ROW($D$6)+1),ROWS($J$5:J5))),"")
Don't forget to Enter This Formula by Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter
without wanting to ruthlessly self promote here, I do have an addin that does neatly compare two ranges, not just in columns, so you might want to check that out.
Having said that this is a pretty neat solution if you dont want to be going down the VBA or purchase route. I like it
however, could you not do something with the remove duplicates feature in Excel 2010 and then compare the resulting data set?
Hi, Chandoo! I've found yesterday your Excel website... What can I say? It's just awesome, Excellent. Being a developer for 30 years, more than 15 with Office products, and wow!, how many things I discovered in a couple of hours, and what pretty resolved.
I decided to take the long path of the newbies and read all your examples and write down by myself all of them, and when I arrived to this (the comparison of two lists) I think I've found a problem:
a) in "Step 4: Apply conditional formatting to Second List - Use the same logic, but this time the rule becomes =COUNTIF(count1s,$H6)" it should say "Step 4: Apply conditional formatting to Second List - Use the same logic, but this time the rule becomes =COUNTIF(count1s,$H6)>0", but this is a typing error that I believe all of us here might have discovered and corrected
b) the very problem: I wrote down two different lists, in different ranges, and with different number of elements, I specified the equivalent conditional formats, et non voilá!, I didn't get what expected. So I downloaded your example book, I checked range names, formulaes, conditional formats and all OK. So I copied -just values- from my book to yours, and I still couldn't achieve the goal.
I'm using Excel 2010 in spanish, I'm from Buenos Aires (Argentina), and my book is at your disposition whenever you considerate it appropiate.
Thanks in advance for your time, and again my congratulations for your work here.
Best regards.
SirJB7
Comparison of 2 lists visually with highlights
Author: SirJB7 / Date: 11-Dic-2011
Pros: no duplicated tables, no matrix formulaes, no named ranges, no VBA code, just conditional formatting
Cons: not found yet, comments and observations welcome
Features:
a) standard problem: highlights in orange/yellow elements existing in the other list
b) optimized problem: idem a) plus highlights in red/violet first occurrence of elements existing in the other list
Sheet contents:
a) conditional format, 1 rule per list (2 methods used)
A1:A20, first list
B1:B20, second list
a1) range A1:A20, condition =NO(ESERROR(BUSCARV(A1;B$1:B$20;1;FALSO))), format Orange ---> in english: =NOT(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A1,B$1:B$20,1,FALSE)))
a2) range B1:B20, condition =CONTAR.SI(A$1:A$20;B1)>0, format Yellow ---> in english: =COUNTIF(A$1:A$20,B1)>0
b) conditional format, 2 rules per list (2 methods used)
D1:D20, first list
E1:E20, second list
b1) range E1:E20, condition 1 =Y(NO(ESERROR(BUSCARV(D1;E$1:E$20;1;FALSO)));COINCIDIR(D1;D$1:D$20;0)=FILA(D1)), format Red ---> in english: =AND(NOT(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(D1,E$1:E$20,1,FALSE))),MATCH(D1,D$1:D$20,0)=ROW(D1))
same range, condition 2 and format 2, same as a1)
b2) range E1:E20, condition =Y(CONTAR.SI(D$1:D$20;E1)>0;COINCIDIR(E1;E$1:E$20;0)=FILA(E1)), format Violet ---> in english: =AND(COUNTIF(D$1:D$20,E1)>0,MATCH(E1,E$1:E$20,0)=ROW(E1))
same range, condition 2 and format 2, same as a2)
Personally I like the a2) and b2) solutions, I think the formulaes are prettier.
I still don't know the rules of this website and forum, but it any precept is infringed I'm willing to share the workbook with the solution. If it breaks a rule, I apologize and promise that won't happen again.
Best regards for all!
Dear All i have a complicated situation...
1. I have two sheets of data Sheet1 and Sheet2 (from various sources) - Both of these contain data matching and Not matching as well..
2. Now for me i need to build an excel where in i need to get sheet 3 with values that are present in a column of Sheet 1.
What ever Sheet 1 doesn't have i dont want those rows from sheet 2 to be populated into Sheet3.
Can any one help me out.
Hi Team
The above example is to compare partial name from 2 different columns.
If I want to cross check it in a single column. I have both correct and partial correct/match entries in a column. Is there any way I can find both the entries in the column.
Regards