Combining/consolidating columns with almost identical data in Excel

Question

Given the following table (which includes all the countries in the world, but is truncated here for convenience):

My ultimate aim is the scatter-plot the values in B against the values in E. The problem is that Columns A and D contain almost the same data, but:

1. There will be countries in A that are not in D, and vice versa.
2. For some countries in A, column B contains no data, and these countries need to be ignored.
3. A small number of countries are named differently e.g. "Puerto Rico" in column A, but "Puerto Rico (US)" in column E.

Is there built-in functionality to handle this sort of thing in Excel, or is some manual manipulation needed first?

Answer 1

you could try this implementation of the soundex function to compare the 2 columns:

Function Soundex(Surname As String) As String
' Developed by Richard J. Yanco
' This function follows the Soundex rules given at
' http://home.utah-inter.net/kinsearch/Soundex.html

    Dim Result As String, c As String * 1
    Dim Location As Integer

    Surname = UCase(Surname)
    If Surname = "" Then
        Soundex = ""
        Exit Function
    End If

'   First character must be a letter
    If Asc(Left(Surname, 1)) < 65 Or Asc(Left(Surname, 1)) > 90 Then
        Soundex = ""
        Exit Function
    Else
'       St. is converted to Saint
        If Left(Surname, 3) = "ST." Then
            Surname = "SAINT" & Mid(Surname, 4)
        End If

'       Convert to Soundex: letters to their appropriate digit,
'                     A,E,I,O,U,Y ("slash letters") to slashes
'                     H,W, and everything else to zero-length string

        Result = Left(Surname, 1)
        For Location = 2 To Len(Surname)
            Result = Result & SoundexCategory(Mid(Surname, Location, 1))
        Next Location

'       Remove double letters
        Location = 2
        Do While Location < Len(Result)
            If Mid(Result, Location, 1) = Mid(Result, Location + 1, 1) Then
                Result = Left(Result, Location) & Mid(Result, Location + 2)
            Else
                Location = Location + 1
            End If
        Loop

'       If SoundexCategory of 1st letter equals 2nd character, remove 2nd character
        If SoundexCategory(Left(Result, 1)) = Mid(Result, 2, 1) Then
            Result = Left(Result, 1) & Mid(Result, 3)
        End If

'       Remove slashes
        For Location = 2 To Len(Result)
            If Mid(Result, Location, 1) = "/" Then
                Result = Left(Result, Location - 1) & Mid(Result, Location + 1)
            End If
        Next

'       Trim or pad with zeroes as necessary
        Select Case Len(Result)
            Case 4
                Soundex = Result
            Case Is < 4
                Soundex = Result & String(4 - Len(Result), "0")
            Case Is > 4
                Soundex = Left(Result, 4)
        End Select
    End If
End Function

Private Function SoundexCategory(c) As String
'   Returns a Soundex code for a letter
    Select Case True
        Case c Like "[AEIOUY]"
            SoundexCategory = "/"
        Case c Like "[BPFV]"
            SoundexCategory = "1"
        Case c Like "[CSKGJQXZ]"
            SoundexCategory = "2"
        Case c Like "[DT]"
            SoundexCategory = "3"
        Case c = "L"
            SoundexCategory = "4"
        Case c Like "[MN]"
            SoundexCategory = "5"
        Case c = "R"
            SoundexCategory = "6"
        Case Else 'This includes H and W, spaces, punctuation, etc.
            SoundexCategory = ""
    End Select
End Function

then just compare =soundex(a1)=soundex(d1), this results in true for Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico (US), from there on you can filter based on this comparison.