在Excel中的两个单元格之间计算相同数量的字符

Question

I'm pretty new, not a first time user, but maybe been here once before.

I have a huge list of names to check if they have duplicates.

The problems is that sometimes the same name is spelled differently for the same person in the list.

So, I'd like to check the first letters of a cell to see if they are the same.

For example, here's a made-up list:

 A1 John Doe
 A2 John Dowe
 A3 John Dove

Is there an Excel function I can use that will tell me how many characters are the same from the cell above it?

So, in the example above the cells where the formula would be, would display:

A1 John Doe B1 0 (or "NA" or "REF" because there's no cell to compare to above it)
 A2 John Dowe B2 7 
 A3 John Dove B3 7

Because both A2 and A3 share 7 characters with the cell above them... I hope this is easy to understand.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Take a look at this question . It's asking about name matching under a different situation, but there are plenty of good examples of how to do it listed there.

It's a pretty deep rabbit hole depending on how intense and in-depth you want to get.

Answer 2

You are NOT giving us enough info.

In your case, A1 ("John Doe") contains two "o" characters. Because of that, the cell below, A2 ("John Dowe") will have only 6 characters in common.

IF what you mean by "same character" is same character in the same position, then you still have got a problem, between A1 and A2.

John Do e
John Do w e

"w" and "e" don't match. Only 6 characters is same.

Provides us more info!

EDIT #1
Copy and paste this code in the Module

Function compareCells(ran As Range) As Variant
Dim numSame As Integer

Dim c As Integer
Dim r As Integer
c = ran.Column  'find selected column
r = ran.Row     'find selected row

Dim a As String
Dim b As String
a = Worksheets("Ark1").Cells(r - 1, c).Value    'string of the cell above
b = Worksheets("Ark1").Cells(r, c).Value        'string of the current cell

Dim aLen As Integer
aLen = Len(a)      'check the length of the a string


Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 To aLen
    If Mid(a, i, 1) = Mid(b, i, 1) Then 'if chars in same pos are equal...
        numSame = numSame + 1
    End If
Next

compareCells = numSame

End Function

EDIT #2

Function compareCells(ran As Range) As Variant
Dim numSame As Integer

Dim c As Integer
Dim r As Integer
c = ran.Column  'find selected column
r = ran.Row     'find selected row

Dim a As String
Dim b As String
a = ActiveSheet.Cells(r - 1, c).Value    'string of the cell above
b = ActiveSheet.Cells(r, c).Value        'string of the current cell

Dim aLen As Integer
aLen = Len(a)      'check the length of the a string


Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 To aLen
    If Mid(a, i, 1) = Mid(b, i, 1) Then 'if chars in same pos are equal...
        numSame = numSame + 1
    End If
Next

compareCells = numSame

End Function

Use =compareCells() and select only the cell you want to compare with the cell above