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.

=EXACT("Excel", "excel")→FALSE

The capital E makes the two texts different.

=TRIM(A2)=TRIM(B2)→TRUE

Ignores extra spaces that would otherwise make two cells look 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.

Why do two cells that look identical not match?

One usually has a trailing space, or a number stored as text. Compare =LEN(A2) and =LEN(B2) to find the difference.

How do I compare a whole row at once?

Use =AND(A2:D2=F2:I2) in Excel 365. It returns TRUE only when every pair of cells matches.

How do I highlight the cells that differ?

Select the second column and add a conditional formatting rule with the formula =A2<>B2.

Related formulas

Check if a value exists in a list Flag duplicate values

Functions used

EXACT IF

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