This menu can be used to compare the current spreadsheet with another data
source. Any differences are reported and a summary is displayed in the Output window.
An example of when this menu could be used is for data entry with verification.
Here, the data could be entered into two different spreadsheets and these could then
be compared using this menu to identify any discrepancies in the data entry.
Data Source
The type of data that will be compared with the current spreadsheet.
| File | Data from an external file. |
| Clipboard | Data currently on the clipboard. |
| Sheet | Another currently open spreadsheet. |
| ODBC | Data from a database using an ODBC query. |
Filename
When the File option is selected for the
Data Source this provides a space to specify the name of a file to be compared
with the current spreadsheet. You can navigate for a file by clicking on the
Browse button.
Sheet
When the Sheet option is selected for the
Data Source this displays a drop down list of other currently
open spreadsheets. Select the sheet from this list that you want to compare the current
sheet with.
Tolerance on numerical comparisons
Specifies a tolerance to be used for numerical comparisons. When comparing two
numerical values, if the absolute difference is less than this amount then this
indicates a match between the items.
Text Comparisons Ignore Case
When selected, comparisons between text in the two spreadsheets will
be made ignoring the case of the characters. For example, the strings
'GENSTAT' and 'GenStat' would not be highlighted as different.
Match Columns by
| Position | The columns are matched sequentially, column 1 with column 1, 2 with 2 etc. |
| Name | The columns are matched using the column names. For each column in the first
spreadsheet a comparison is made with a column with the same name in the second spreadsheet.
Note that a warning is produced if no matching columns are found. This option allows two
spreadsheets with the columns in different orders to be compared. |
Match rows using ID
By default the data are compared row by row. However, this option allows
a spreadsheet with data from another source to be compared using an ID column.
When selected the ID column
can be chosen from the drop-down list. This option is useful to compare
data between a spreadsheet and another data source that has been sorted into a different
order.
Selected columns only
Only compare the selected columns in the current spreadsheet with the other
data source.
Abort comparison after finding N differences
This limits the number of differences that are found to a maximum of the
number specified in the space provided.
OK
Compare the spreadsheet with the other data source.
Cancel
Close dialog.
See Also