Compare two lists and highlight the difference

Question

I have two lists which I have to compare.

In the first column are item numbers with letters.

I want to know what the difference between the lists is, one list is the older version and one is the newer version.

• When a row only is in the older version it should be marked red.
• When a row only is in the newer version it should be marked green.

I haven't started writing code for this application because I don't know how I can automate it. At the moment I paste the older list under the newer and filter each row individually and then mark then.. That's not working automatically...

Answer 1

What you describe can be achieved with conditional formatting. With the old list in column A and the new list in column B, you can apply conditional formatting with a rule:

• select column B
• create a conditional format with a formula
• use this formula for marking old list values red

=COUNTIF(B:B,A1)

• select the desired format.
• create another formula for marking only new list values green
• use this formula:

=COUNTIF(B:B,A1)=0

• select the desired format.

Note that there are no $ signs in the cell reference.

Adjust the formulas to reflect your lists.