Find Diff Tool

Description:

In the daily data analytic work, many times, we need to find the differences in two data sets that have many similar attributes. Sometime we want to see the differences between the changes made to the data sets.

Find Diff Tool Add-In is designed for finding the differences in the two similar data sets. This tool is not for comparing 2 random data sets.

In Find Diff tool, using the source and target identifies the 2 similar data sets. In each data set, the data can be categorized as key fields and value fields. The fields in the keys are treated as one entity. If a field in the keys is different, the entire row is treated as different and is listed in source only or target only. When the fields in the keys are all identical, the values section is highlighted as differences if any.

In the Find Diff Tool Task Pane:

• Enter the source/target sheet name. The default is Sheet1/Sheet2.

• Set up the color scheme: [#LI]In Source/Target Only: The row only exists in the source/target based on the defined keys.

• Source Diff Color: When the data keys are identical while the values are different.

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To change the color, click the color box to select a color from the pre-defined color sets.

Prepare the data:

For the best result,

• Please sort the data as much as possible.

• Make the common data part as the keys for comparison.

• Not make the to-be-examined fields as a part of keys to see the highlighted differences.

• When the data is in XLSX format with merged cells, please save the data into CSV format before paste the data into the sheets.

There are 3 action buttons:

• Setting button: It creates 2 sheets: [#LI]Setting sheet: It has 4 columns: Source Headers, Keys, Includes, Target Headers. To set up keys columns for comparison, please enter "Y" and "N" in the Key columns. The keys fields are treated as an entity for the comparison. Please put the common data fields into the key group and the to-be-examined fields into non-key fields. In the "Include" column, enter "Y" or "N" to include the field in the comparison or not. [#LI]Summary Sheet: it summarizes the comparison results.

• Compare button: Click Compare button to compare the source and target data.

• Reset button: Click Reset button to clears up all the coloring in the source and target sheet and it deletes the Setting and Summary sheets.

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Features:

• Simple settings and user friendly tool.

• Customizable color schema.

• Comparison summary shows the detail result.

Instruction:

• Download this add in and start Excel 2013 SP1 or later.

• Open GCC Add-in Ribbon and click Find Diff Tool button to bring up the task pane.

• Prepare data for comparison.

• Enter the source data sheet name and target data sheet name.

• Set the color schema as like

• Click Setting button to bring up the setting sheet.

• Include or exclude fields in Keys column and Include or exclude fields in Include column for comparison.

• Click Compare button and wait for the action complete.

• Research the result in the summary sheet and source/target sheets.