Fuzzy Lookup

Fuzzy Lookup is an Excel add-in created by a Microsoft development team, and can be used for advanced search and comparison of column values in tables. Why does this serve for? For example, in practice, it often happens that, when entering a name and surname, an error occurs or there is no one-way entry. Fuzzy Lookup allows you to compare the column based on the similarity and display the corresponding results in the new table.

To use this plugin you need to first download and install it. Download is done on this link, and after you install, should add it to Excel. We do this by clicking on the File tab, and then selecting Options/Add-Ins. In the menu below, select the COM Add-Ins option, and then in the window that appears, select the option to activate. If you’ve done everything right, a new ribbon wil appear that contains only one option will appear – Fuzzy Lookup!

This Excel add-in compares data in structured tables. So if you’ve retrieved data from traditional tables, convert them to structured before you start comparing. In the example, we will use two tables: the first one is a list of employees in the personnel records, and the other records are list of accounts in a local coffee shop. Our goal is to get the information: how many employees really made the cost?

We activate the option by going to the Fuzzy Lookup ribbon and clicking on the icon. On the right side will open a panel in which we’re adjusting the settings.

First, we need to choose which tables to compare and which columns we will compare. After selecting two tables (in our example: Table1, Table2) and the columns you compare (columns NAME and SURNAME in both tables), clicking on the icon that indicates the connection, we create the comparison criterion that appears in the Match Columns table. It is also possible to create more criteria if necessary. Then in the Output Columns list, we need to choose which columns from both tables should be displayed as a result. The Number of Matches should indicate how many results found in the source table should be displayed and by moving the slider Similarity Treshold we can adjust the sensitivity of the comparison criteria. When we have defined all the criteria, we need to go to the new worksheet and select a cell where Excel will display the results of the comparison. After that, we click the Go button and we get the required result.

We can repeat the procedure several times, with moving the Similarity Treshold slider until we get the desired results. Clicking on Undo is a step backwards, and clicking on the Configure button will open a window containing a number of additional options for adjusting the comparison criteria.