How to Perform Fuzzy Matching in Excel

In this tutorial, you will learn how to perform fuzzy matching in Excel.

Fuzzy matching, also known as approximate string matching, is a method for finding two text, string, or entry components that are roughly similar but not identical.

Once you are ready, we can get started by using real-life scenarios to help you understand how to perform fuzzy matching in Excel.

Perform Fuzzy Matching

Before we begin we will need a group of data to be used to perform fuzzy matching in Excel.

Step 1

Make sure your group of data is displayed in a clean and tidy manner in the first sheet.

Step 2

To perform fuzzy matching, we will create a Pivot Table. To do that we will select the entire data group, then select ‘Insert’, then select ‘Pivot Table’.

Step 3

In our PivotTable Fields, we will insert ‘Departments’ as the Row value, ‘Sports’ as Column Value and use the count of sports as a value to count the amount of sports in each departments.

Step 4

Once we are done, the Pivot Table will look like this.