How to use the compare two lists
- Paste your first list into List A and your second into List B, one item per line. If your items are separated by commas, change the separator setting.
- Choose whether to ignore case, trim spaces and skip blank items. The defaults suit most spreadsheet columns.
- The page compares as you type and shows four results: only in A, only in B, in both, and all items combined.
- Press a Copy button under any result, or Download all as CSV to get the three main groups side by side.
- Use Swap A and B to reverse the comparison, or Clear to start over.
What each result means
Only in List A are the items that appear in A and nowhere in B, which spreadsheet users often build with a lookup formula. Only in List B is the reverse. In both lists is the overlap, called the intersection, and All items combined is the union with every item listed once.
Suppose A is apple, Banana, cherry and B is banana, cherry, date. With case ignored, the overlap is Banana and cherry, only A has apple, and only B has date. The combined list is apple, Banana, cherry, date. Each result keeps the order and the spelling of the item the first time it was seen.
Matching rules
By default the comparison ignores upper and lower case, so Apple and apple are the same item, and trims spaces so that a stray space at the end of a pasted cell does not hide a match. Turn those options off when the differences matter, for example when comparing product codes where case is significant.
Matching is exact text matching. The tool does not guess that Street and St mean the same thing, and it does not compare numbers by value, so 1.0 and 1 are different items. If you need that kind of cleanup, standardize the lists first.
Repeated items in one list count once in the results. The summary line tells you how many repeats each list had, so you know whether the raw count of 100 rows is really 92 unique items.
Getting data in and out
Copy a column from a spreadsheet and paste it into a box: rows arrive as lines. For comma separated text such as one email line, pick Commas, or Detect to let the tool decide when your text has no line breaks. Each list can hold up to 50,000 items. Everything is processed in this tab and nothing is uploaded or stored.
Assumptions and limits
- Items are compared as exact text after the trim and case options are applied.
- Each result lists an item once, using the spelling from its first appearance.
- Limit: 50,000 items per list.
- The CSV has three columns, Only in A, Only in B and In both. Items on one row are not related to each other.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find what is in one list but not the other?
Paste both lists and read Only in List A for items missing from B, or Only in List B for the reverse. Each box can be copied with one press and pasted back into a spreadsheet column.
Why are my lists not matching when they look identical?
Usually the difference is invisible: a trailing space, different capitalization or a line break inside a cell. Keep Ignore case and Trim spaces ticked, which removes the two most common causes of a false mismatch.
Can I compare comma separated lists?
Yes. Set the separator to Commas, or choose Detect, which treats text without line breaks as comma separated. Items are trimmed so a space after each comma does not matter.
Does the order of the items matter?
No, matching ignores order. Results are listed in the order items first appeared in your pasted lists, so you can scan them against your source.
Is there a limit on how long the lists can be?
Each list can have up to 50,000 items, which covers most spreadsheet columns. Beyond that, the page asks you to compare in parts. To pick items at random afterward, use the list randomizer.