Text & Cleanup

Excel formula for Compare two cells for a match

Check whether two cells are identical, including letter case.

Copy this formula

=EXACT(A2, B2)

How the formula works

EXACT returns TRUE only when the two values match exactly, case included. A plain =A2=B2 also compares but ignores case. Wrap in IF to return a friendly label.

Examples

=IF(EXACT(A2, B2), "Match", "Differ")→Differ

"ABC" and "abc" are treated as different.

Other ways to do this

Case-insensitive

=IF(A2=B2, "Match", "Differ")

Plain comparison ignores case.

FAQ

Why does =A2=B2 say they match when cases differ?

Standard comparison is case-insensitive. Use EXACT for a case-sensitive check.

Related formulas

Check if a value exists in a list Flag duplicate values

Functions used

EXACT IF

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