How to merge two files in excel?

Question

Lets say that in an excel sheet

first column has

a
s
d
f
h
j

and second column has

s
d
f

If the contents in column2 match with the contents in column1 then it should be replaced with null.

The final results would be as shown below, since s,d and f are common across the two files.

a
null
null
null
h
j

How do I achieve this in Excel?

Answer 1

With a basic formula

Edit: I used two columns from the same sheet in the same workbook. If you actually have two files then column B should be linked directly in from the second workbook

• In C1 put =IF(ISNA(MATCH(A1,B:B,0)),A1,"null") and copy down
• Copy and Paste Special Value Column C back over Column A if you want to replace the values

Answer 2

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "files", but you can probably do this with the MATCH function if it's just a one time process. Otherwise you'll need a bit of VBA as well.