Compare two tables and find the differences
Two exports from neighbouring months, a file before and after an edit, your list and a supplier’s answer. In Excel these are compared with VLOOKUP, conditional formatting or an add-in — slow and error-prone. Here two tables are compared by a key in seconds, and the result shows every changed field.
Free to use. “Tables” → “Compare two tables…”. Files are not uploaded. Windows version — 4.6 MB, no installation: details. Pro — $29 once: price.
How to compare
- Open both tables, each in its own tab. The formats can differ: Excel with CSV, DBF with XML.
- “Tables” → “Compare two tables…” and choose the second table.
- Mark the key fields — they are used to find a row’s pair: an order number, an ID, a code. Several are allowed.
- You get four numbers — changed, added, removed, unchanged — and a list of “was → now” changes for every field.
- Save the report as CSV and pass it to whoever fixes the data.
Why not VLOOKUP
- VLOOKUP says whether a record exists in the second table, but not which field changed: that takes a formula per column.
- It finds only the first match and is silent about a repeated key — here the number of repeats is shown.
- Codes with leading zeros have often already been turned into numbers by Excel at that point, and the keys stopped matching.
- On hundreds of thousands of rows, recalculating the formulas takes minutes.
Columns and row order
Columns are matched by name, not by position: a field added in the middle of the new export does not break the comparison. Row order does not matter — the pair is found by the key. If the tables have no common key they cannot be compared by meaning: add one first, for example with a calculated column.
Other jobs with two tables
- Look at two tables side by side by key — link two tables.
- Fold several files into one — merge files.
- More on comparing exports — compare two CSV files, and a side-by-side view with highlighting: compare tables side by side.
FAQ
Can I compare two sheets of one workbook?
Yes: open the workbook twice and in the second tab pick another sheet in the file parse dialog — you get two tables.
Are formatting and formulas compared?
No, only the values: the data is compared, not the look of the cells.
How big can the tables be?
Hundreds of thousands of rows are compared in seconds.
Free to use. Your file is not uploaded to a server. Windows version — 4.6 MB, no installation: details. Pro — $29 once: price.