comparing two columns in excel (VLOOKUP not working) - excel

Question

I have been breaking my head with this problem since morning and I haven't found a solution. Please give your valuable pointers if possible, so that I can try to find the solution.
I basically have two sets of data- an old list and a new list. I wish to compare the new list( comparing name and country together) with an old list, since the new list has a few additional entries. Later on, I would like to create a new list with common entries from both old and new list and add all the new entries below the common ones ( if possible, else I will do that manually later on but I would like Excel to tell me that this is a new entry). Sorry, if this has not been well explained, but maybe the following illustration helps
Old List
Item No. Name Country
1 Apples Italy
3 Banana Spain
4 Grapes Slovakia
5 Pineapple Greece
8 Banana Czech Republic
14 Apples India
23 Pineapple Hungary
19 Peach USA
2 Strawberries France
New List
Item No. Name Country
4 Grapes Slovakia
Mango Pakistan
14 Apples India
Oranges Mexico
19 Peach USA
2 Strawberries France
1 Apples Italy
3 Banana Spain
23 Pineapple Hungary
Avocado Netherlands
Expected Output:
List with common serial No.s based on common names from both lists
Item No.Name Country
4 Grapes Slovakia
14 Apples India
19 Peach USA
2 Strawberries France
1 Apples Italy
3 Banana Spain
23 Pineapple Hungary
Mango Pakistan
Oranges Mexico
Avocado Netherlands
As can be seen in this attachment, I have an old list with Item No., Name and Country. Let's assume that the item numbers have been classified based on some code words. In the second list, there are again Item No.s, Name and Country but some item numbers haven't been filled ( since they are new and have not yet been sorted). Now, I want Excel to compare the names AND countries of both data and provide the common Item No. output if there is a match. If there is no match, then I would like Excel to tell me that this is a new entry. I looked up on various forums and I realized that VLOOKUP command only allows me to search on Name OR Country would give me the common entries of Names/Countries respectively but not Item No.s. Is there any formula that could help me solve this problem?

Answer 1

Just paste the list together, then sort it, and then remove the duplicates. Removing duplicates is built-in into Excel starting from version 2007, you will find it in the Data ribbon (see http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/excel-help/filter-for-unique-values-or-remove-duplicate-values-HP010073943.aspx).

Answer 2

To use VLOOKUP just concatenate Name and Country, for example, B2 & "-" & C2. You can then do a lookup on the concatenated values in your source table:
VLOOKUP(B2 & "-" & C2,NewList!D2:E100,2,False)
This assumes that the concatenated column is in D in your new table, and that you've copied the numbers to column E (VLOOKUP can't look to the right). I put in the dash for readablility and to avoid the chance that a Country ends with a number, unlikely as that might be.