Compare two columns in Excel

 If you have two large lists that you need to compare (to identify what items are missing in one of the lists), this can be done in excel.

Add the first list (the bigger of the two) in column A and the other list in column B.

For column C, add this formula in cell C2 and drag it all the way down to the bottom column C:

=IF(COUNTIF($B:$B; A2)=0; "Item in column A is missing in column B"; "Item exists in both lists")

What it does is for each cell in column A, it will run through all the items in column B and look for a match and note if it finds one, see screenshot below.

An example xlsx file is available on GitHub (choose download raw file).