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Confirm That Numbers Match

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Q. I need to be sure that a number at one end of a large spreadsheet matches another number at the other end. Since it’s tedious going back and forth to check, I wonder if you have a shortcut for making sure they match.

A. Excel has a simple solution. Say one number is in cell A1 and the other is in A2. In the cell where you want the numbers compared, enter this formula:

=exact(A1,A2)

If A1 and A2 match, the cell with the formula will read TRUE; if they don’t, it will display FALSE, as the screenshot at right illustrates.