Select key columns and headings

If you are going to compare two tables, you need to know about key columns and headings. Key columns define a set of values, that identify every row in your table. This could be SKU, TAXID, Name, Property Address, ... Heading rows is a part of your table that defines structure. Typically, this is a row with a list of field names.
In the simple example below, the key column is Fruit and heading is first row.
Sample Excel Worksheet

How to mark column as key

Right click on the column heading and select Key Column in the context menu. To clear key column - do the right click again and click the Standard Column item in the menu.
Right click menu on the column heading

How to select heading rows

Right click on the row heading area and click the Heading Row item in the menu.
Right click menu on the row heading

Result

Key columns and Heading rows are highighlited with background color on the worksheet.
Excel worksheet with key markers

See Also

Compare two columns for mismatching items

How to get the list of mismatching items and correct them ...

Filter equal and inserted rows

xlCompare provides you with a set of filtering commands to quickly get unique or identical rows ...

Select worksheets to be compared

If your Excel file has a number of worksheets, in this window you can pair them correctly and review key columns and table heading areas for all the sheets in your Excel files ...

Populate sheet with rows from another sheet

Do you need to update your Excel table with records from another one? xlCompare has a set of merge commands to copy data from one sheet to another in one click ...

GIT diff XLSX files

How to keep and review all the revisions of your XLSX file? Read this instruction if you are using GIT in your development process.

Command line arguments (CLI)

Use xlCompare to compare and merge XLSX, XML and TEXT files with Command Line Interface ...

Here you can download xlCompare

On this page you can download the most recent version of xlCompare. Save the setup file and install it on your computer ...

Version History

Complete list of all xlCompare versions and modifications. Starting from first public release in 2009.

Download xlCompare