I’ve been playing around with MS Excel 2007, and found that I wanted to paste in two lists and then have Excel automatically identify and extract all the non-duplicates. The second list is a jumbled up variant of the first, with some new additions in it.

Here’s a working .xls file showing my example: excel-sort-two-lists-find-non-duplicates (20kb). The embedded formula spots and extracts the new additions, handily placing them directly alongside their occurrence.

excel-example

Tip: The formula currently only goes 18 cells down in Column C. To extend it further, click that 18th cell, spot the little “+” in the corner of the cell, and then drag the “+” down for as many extra cells as you need.

There are a zillion bits of advice on using Excel to identify duplicates, but not so many for spotting and extracting non-duplicates in this manner. So hopefully this working example will be of use to someone.