Merge two tables with some different headers in Excel formulas

Question

I have a table in sheet a, that I want to merge with sheet b, and output on sheet c. Most of the column titles are the same but there are a few that are unique to a and to b. I want my output table to have every possible column title so that it can exist as a single table.

Please let me know if you know how to do this, or anything that can put me in the right direction. Very interested in not using Macros and using formulas.

Thanks

Answer 1

To merge two tables with formulas you can use either "Vlookup" or a combination of the "index" and "Match" functions. However, I prefer the method I did below Using power pivot.

If you want to use vlookup here is a good resource:

https://exceljet.net/excel-functions/excel-vlookup-function

Using Power Pivot:

You can merge 2 tables in excel using power pivot. It requires a bit of setup but it is not hard to do.

If you do not have power pivot you can get the add in by doing the following: 1.) Clicking on File on the top left > select "Options" on the bottom left 2.) From the pop up select the "Add-ins" section 3.) From the drop down on the bottom select "COM Add-ins" > click go 4.) Select the check box next to "Microsoft power pivot for excel" 5.) A new "Power Pivot" tab will appear on the ribbon

With That out of the way you first need to convert your tables into "Official excel tables" so you can merge them. To do this click anywhere onto the table and press CTRL+T. You have to do this for each table.

Next you need to click anywhere on one of your new tables and go to the data tab and select "From Table/Range"

Since there are two tables we just want to add the first table to our power pivot queries for now. In the next screen on the top left click on "Close and load to" >> then select "Only create connection".

We need to add the other table to power pivot as well but the second step is a bit different because we are going to merge the two tables. 1.) Like before click anywhere on the 2nd table and click on From Table/Range.
2.) This time when the power query editor comes up we want to select the merge "queries button" on the top 3.) From the merge window select the table that you want to join with and the click on the ID to join on from both tables. You may also want to update the join kind from the drop down list then click ok. 4.) After merging Your table will have a new column with a value of table, click on the little arrow icon next to the column header to expand it and select the fields that you want to display from table 2 and click OK. All the columns you selected will be added to the table. At this point you can rename the column names so they do not display something like Table2.Name

5.) Click close and load to from the top left, keep the first option "Table" , and click ok. You should have your new table in a new worksheet now.