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    <title><![CDATA[Discussion on Office challenge: When an IF() returns FALSE, when it should return TRUE ]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492]]></link>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[absolute values]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3551518]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Sometimes, it's the format of the cell (general, text, etc.), so if you use the absolute value of the cell ABS(A4) compared to ABS(B4), it will match.  This has been the case every time I've had this problem.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3551518]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[marj@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:14:47 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[If you UPPER()]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522913]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[or LOWER() both strings that will eliminate all case sensitivity.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522913]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[N / A]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:55:18 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[comma's instead of semicolons]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522818]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Only one thing left to solve: the &quot;a&quot; and &quot;A&quot; difference.The comments on Exact, Len, Trim etc were eye openers. What I am am surprised about however is the use of comma's instead of semicolons in most of the, otherwise right, solutions. In my version(s) of Excel that doesn't work. Hans &quot;Wrdwzrd&quot;]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522818]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[wrdwzrd]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:47:41 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[@?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522570]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[For me, this just results in a mailto: link.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522570]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[N / A]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:49:33 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[This could be helpful but]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522548]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[could also give a false TRUE.  For example, text with a trailing space would be the same length as the same text with a trailing non-breaking space but the text strings would not match.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522548]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[N / A]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:36:34 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[This may still not be enough]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522565]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[There are some characters that, in the unusual case that they are present, will remain even after using these three functions.  The only way to fix that is with SUBSTITUTE, replacing those characters with a character that can be handled using CLEAN, TRIM, or EXACT.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522565]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[N / A]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:30:41 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[b4 has a space after the C]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522269]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[a4 does not have a space after the C, so they're not equal]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522269]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[elongp]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:38:38 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Keep it simple]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522261]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Thanks for all the knowledge about TRIM(), CLEAN(), MED(), LEN() and whatever. I never heard of those and I'll be trying them out.However, I like to keep things simple. I use =A1=B1 to get my True or False. If it's false, in most cases, I need to review the data anyway since I'm usually comparing data that came from the same place just on different days.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522261]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark.Mathews]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:35:21 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[I have to point out..]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522139]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[they both are metaphorically apples, they are both values in an excel sheet.  The point is the fly in the ointment is differing entry that seems the same.so one of the apples in our example is really a granny smith the other a crispin.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522139]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[jmackeyiii]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:01:37 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[It is the Final Frontier...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522129]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[the irony is the letter chosen.  You can not see(C) the trailing SPACE.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522129]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[jmackeyiii]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:53:24 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[TRIM alone may not be enough]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522124]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[You never know what you might get when you download data from external sources. TRIM removes unnecessary spaces, but not non-printing characters. I'd take the extra step to say = EXACT(TRIM(CLEAN(A4)),TRIM(CLEAN(B4))) to be sure to remove any other hidden characters.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522124]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[david.hanshumaker@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:41:46 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[I hate extraneous white space]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522111]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I have a couple of large spread sheets, 10s of 1,000s of rows, into which I paste copied text.  The authors of the sources typically include lots of unnecessary white space.  So I wrote a little macro that examines each cell and deletes leading and trailing white space.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522111]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[N / A]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:13:04 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Extra space problem]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522090]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[There is a trailing space in B4 but not in A4, which returns a FALSE statement.  Yes, you can use TRIM() to fix it, but I find that to be cumbersome in a large spreadsheet.  I prefer a tool that does that automatically, such as TRIM SPACES from Ablebits.com (it's free).  That way the entire sheet is consistently formatted in one click.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522090]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[kwilliams30@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:36:37 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[My first assumption was true]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522081]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[There is a space after the C in cell B4 therefore the two cells are not the same.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522081]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[wehmeier]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:32:39 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[I'm a user, not a fixer, but...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522056]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I made it work by checking formating - when a row was selected, and Format Cell selected, I discovered rows were not formated. Selected &quot;general&quot; and everything worked, without changing spaces or doing  (for me) exotic functions like len().]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522056]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[john.elliker@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:24:15 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[TRIM() or CLEAN()]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522064]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[TRIM gets both the trailing AND leading whitespace. (edit:) CLEAN gets the nonprintable characters too.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522064]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[oldbaritone]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:21:09 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Add a little more information...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522026]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Having dealt with a number of ways users come up with data, especially when one or more sources are from a database, it helps to add column headers so you know where it is from.  Another column I would add would include the formula=IF(LEN(A1)=LEN(B1),TRUE,FALSE)This will help you see what is going on with the data itself.  For the first three rows, it returns TRUE.  For the last one you get FALSE.  With column headers you can inspect the data source to see why the length is different and correct it if should be a single character.  It can also reduce the number of &quot;help me with this&quot; calls you get.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3522026]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[Ole88]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:50:45 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Don't just assume]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3521969]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Don't just assume and trim. Understand where the hidden character came from. It could be from a database system where &quot;C&quot; and &quot;C &quot; are truly considered unique.This can also trickle into other formulas like lookups.If it is user input, you also may want to have some kind of edit to force consistency.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3521969]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[gedwards@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:09:49 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Spacing is the problem.]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3521994]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Spacing is the problem. There is a space after the c in B4. Delete the space after the letter c and the formula returns a TRUE.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3521994]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[acsmvogel]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:48:54 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Difference between text and value]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3521980]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[You are correct about the exception.  If you were to put the quotation marks around TRUE and FALSE, you would get true text as the output.  As it is, the result is a logical value that displays like text.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-350492-3521980]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[jody.burton@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:22:51 -0800</pubDate>
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