Two Excel File Comparison Guide
Tired of using VLOOKUP for reconciliation? With xlstools, you can compare two Excel files in one click and easily find all differences and unique records.
Why Use Excel File Comparison?
In daily work, you often need to compare two Excel files, such as orders and shipment lists. Traditional methods like VLOOKUP are tedious, error-prone, and inefficient for large data sets, and hard to generate complete reports.
xlstools is designed for these scenarios, automatically completing all comparisons and classifications for you—no formulas, no manual filtering.
What Can the Tool Do?
For example, when checking order and shipment quantities, xlstools can automatically identify:
- Fully matched: Ordered quantity and shipped quantity are the same
- Quantity differences: Ordered and shipped quantities are different
- Only in orders: Exists in orders but not shipped
- Only in shipments: Exists in shipments but not in orders
Comparison uses "Order No. + Product Code" as the unique identifier to automatically categorize all results.
Sample Data
Order file (orders.xlsx):
| Order No. | Product Code | Ordered Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| 1001 | A001 | 5 |
| 1001 | A002 | 3 |
| 1002 | A001 | 2 |
| 1003 | A003 | 4 |
📥 Download sample file: orders.xlsx
Shipment file (shipped.xlsx):
| Order No. | Product Code | Shipped Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| 1001 | A001 | 5 |
| 1001 | A002 | 2 |
| 1002 | A001 | 0 |
| 1004 | A004 | 1 |
📥 Download sample file: shipped.xlsx
How to Use
- Upload two Excel files (.xlsx or .xls)
- Select the worksheet to compare (if there are multiple sheets)
- Select key columns (such as Order No., Product Code; you can select multiple)
- Tip: The comparison is most accurate when the key columns are unique for each record (e.g., Order No. + Product Code). If not unique, results may have errors or duplicates.
- Select content columns to compare (such as Ordered Quantity, Shipped Quantity)
- Click "Start Comparison"—the system will automatically analyze and categorize results
- Export the comparison report, which includes all categories
📥 View sample report: result.xlsx
Common Scenarios
- Order and shipment reconciliation
- Inventory checking
- Financial reconciliation
- Data migration validation
- Version comparison
- Report consistency checking
Best Practices & FAQ
- Make sure both Excel files have consistent formats and standardized key columns
- Key columns should be unique for each record for best accuracy
- Multi-column combinations improve matching
- Clean spaces and formats before comparison
- Review differences after results are generated
- Not matching? Check case, spaces, and number formats
- Different column names? Just select columns with the same meaning
- For large files, keep each under 20MB; the tool can handle tens of thousands of rows
Privacy & Security
All data is processed locally in your browser and never uploaded to the server—your data is safe.
For more details or sample files, see the download links and images above.