Compare two columns in excel?

Excel: Text compare and change

• I'm currently working on a list of products with a variety of categories for each, which I have in Excel (and will end up in Word). I need to know if it's possible (and the Excel formula for making it happen) to compare two fields in a row: If they're different, they should stay as is, but if they're the same, I'd like them combined. An example of this particular data in a row would be: Author:<tab>author name<tab>Editor:<tab>editor name If the author and editor are different names, it'll end up looking like this in Word: Author: John Doe Editor: Joe Blow But if they're the same, they'll be combined into: Author/Editor: John Doe. Can this be done using Excel formulas? My preference would be to have the "Author: name" and "Editor: name" end up as two fields, but I'm aware for the comparison, that process will need four fields. So that I can keep the list in Excel with everything lining up under the column heads, the end result of the formula should either be: Author: name<tab>Editor: name or Author/Editor: name<tab><blank field> (I can take care of the process moving the data from Word to Excel with the whole list, turn the two Author and Editor columns into the four needed for comparison, then back to my preferred Word format afterward; I just need the formula I can plug in to do the comparison on each row.) A nice tip will be provided for a speedy working solution. And, no offense, but I don't need an explanation of how it works...just that it works for my purposes, because I'm on a relatively short deadline. Thanks in advance... A E

• Answer:

  vidgames.. I am glad we were able to get what you were looking for. Being that we got you question taken care of in the above clarifications, I won't repost. If you have any additional help you need regarding this project, let me know I would be more than happy to help. Thanks! -THV