Data Cleaning and Fuzzy Matching Blog
Latest Articles
Get the most out of your data. Our blog provides expert insights, practical guides and advanced strategies for data cleaning, advanced fuzzy matching and intelligent data automation with Flookup Data Wrangler. Improve your data quality, streamline your workflows and make better decisions with our proven techniques.
XLOOKUP vs Flookup Data Wrangler
XLOOKUP removes column limits but still needs exact strings. See why typos still fail and how Flookup handles word order and abbreviations with a similarity score in Excel and Google Sheets.
VLOOKUP vs Flookup Data Wrangler
VLOOKUP needs exact strings and fails on typos like Jon versus John. Learn how Flookup scores similarity and finds the closest match in Excel and Google Sheets.
R Data Cleaning and Fuzzy Matching Guide
A practical guide to data cleaning and fuzzy matching in R using dplyr, stringdist, stringr and fuzzyjoin. Bridge R workflows with Google Sheets for a complete data cleaning pipeline.
Free CSV Editor for Your Browser
CSV Wrangler is a free CSV editor that runs entirely in your browser. Inspect, clean, deduplicate, filter and transform CSV files with a CSV health report. Your data never leaves your device.
Free Fuzzy Matching Tool for Your Browser
Free fuzzy matching tool: paste two lists of names, emails or text and get a similarity score for every match. Your data never leaves your browser.
Free CSV Diff Tool for Your Browser
Free CSV diff tool: compare two CSV files by a key column and see added, removed and changed rows instantly, with a match rate and downloadable diff. Your data never leaves your browser.
Fuzzy Lookup for Excel vs Flookup Data Wrangler
A head-to-head comparison of Microsoft's Windows-only Fuzzy Lookup add-in and Flookup Data Wrangler. Covers Mac support, matching algorithms, deduplication and maintenance.
Vendor Reconciliation in Google Sheets
Match an accounts payable list against your master vendor table with fuzzy matching. A practical four-step vendor reconciliation workflow you can run entirely in Google Sheets.
Order-to-Shipping Reconciliation in Google Sheets
Find out which orders never shipped. Match your orders export against the shipping log with standardised customer names and confidence scores for every order.
How to Consolidate Duplicate User Lists in Google Sheets
Merge an HR export and a CRM or RevOps list into one clean list of unique users. Standardise names, flag people in both systems and consolidate the rest.
AI Data Cleaning: How AI Tools Clean and Prepare Data
What AI-powered cleaning tools do, how they deduplicate and standardise data and when AI data cleaning beats manual spreadsheet work. Includes an AI vs manual comparison table.
How to Do Fuzzy Matching in Google Sheets
Compare columns and find approximate matches with formula approaches and the Flookup add-on. A step-by-step guide to fuzzy lookup and near-duplicate detection in Sheets.
Best Fuzzy Matching Software and Tools
Flookup, Microsoft Fuzzy Lookup, OpenRefine, fuzzywuzzy and RapidFuzz compared on setup, deduplication, profiling and cost. Includes a full comparison table.
Fuzzy Name Matching: The Complete Guide
How to match customer and company names despite typos, abbreviations and name order differences. Algorithms, normalisation, tokenization and the tools that automate it.
Fuzzy Address Matching: How to Match Addresses in Sheets
Normalise, split and fuzzy match address components to link and deduplicate records despite typos, abbreviations and formatting differences in Google Sheets.
Wikibase Data Cleaning in Google Sheets
Standardise labels, deduplicate records and reconcile against existing items before generating QuickStatements commands. A practical workflow for museums, knowledge bases and OpenRefine users.
How to Highlight Duplicates in Google Sheets with Fuzzy Conditional Formatting
Spot fuzzy duplicates directly on your sheet with colour-coded grouping. Supports multiple colour schemes and multi-column matching so you can visually review clusters before taking action.
OpenRefine vs Flookup Data Wrangler: Head-to-Head Comparison
See how profiling, smart deduplication, enrichment and Learn from Examples stack up against OpenRefine's faceting, clustering, reconciliation and GREL. Includes a full feature table and guidance on when to use each tool.
Pandas vs Flookup Data Wrangler: Code vs No-Code Data Cleaning
Compare code-based data cleaning in Python pandas against Flookup's no-code fuzzy matching, deduplication and text standardisation in Google Sheets. Includes a full feature table covering profiling, fuzzy merges and Learn from Examples.
Power Query vs Flookup Data Wrangler: Spreadsheet Data Cleaning Compared
A head-to-head comparison of Microsoft Power Query's ETL engine against Flookup's Google Sheets-native cleaning tools. Covers profiling, deduplication, fuzzy matching and the M language versus Learn from Examples.
Ablebits Power Tools vs Flookup Data Wrangler
Two Google Sheets add-ons with different jobs. Compare Ablebits Power Tools' 40+ utilities against Flookup's fuzzy matching, smart deduplication, scheduling and AI for removing duplicates and cleaning data.
Alteryx vs Flookup Data Wrangler
Enterprise analytics platform or spreadsheet-native data preparation? Compare Alteryx's governed workflows with Flookup's Google Sheets toolkit for cleaning, wrangling, enriching and scheduling data.
How to Schedule Data Cleaning in Google Sheets
Set your data cleaning on autopilot with Flookup Data Cleaning Automation. Learn when to use scheduled cleaning vs on-demand tools and how to choose the right interval for recurring deduplication and standardisation tasks.
Entity Resolution and Data Reconciliation in Google Sheets
A practical guide to identifying, matching and merging records across datasets. Learn the entity resolution workflow from standardisation through blocking, scoring and deduplication using Flookup tools.
Teach Google Sheets to Clean Product Codes Without Formulas
Amazon's brand protection work shows why consistent product identifiers matter. This guide uses Learn from Examples to standardise complex product codes in Google Sheets. No formulas required. Teach by example and the system learns your transformation rules.
Standardise Phone Numbers in Google Sheets
Google built libphonenumber because phone number formats are inconsistent everywhere. This guide shows how Learn from Examples reformats phone numbers across multiple formats in Google Sheets. No complex formulas or regex required.
Standardise Customer Names in Google Sheets
In 2005 investigators linked 40,000 pilots against disability records by matching names written differently. This guide shows how Learn from Examples standardises customer names in Google Sheets. Handle titles, suffixes, name reordering and case conversion by example.
Dirty Data Horror Stories and Costly Spreadsheet Mistakes
Real-world dirty data horror stories from NASA, Knight Capital and more. Learn how spreadsheet mistakes in unit conversion, deduplication and data decay led to catastrophic financial losses and how to prevent them.
Data Quality Audit Checklist for Google Sheets
A practical checklist for evaluating your Google Sheets datasets across six core dimensions of data quality. Includes actionable checks, formula examples and guidance on building a repeatable audit schedule.
How to Prepare Clean Data for AI and RAG Pipelines
A step-by-step workflow for preparing clean, deduplicated and standardised data in Google Sheets before feeding it into AI and RAG pipelines. Covers consolidation, entity resolution and export for vectorisation.
How to Automate Deduplication in Google Sheets
Step-by-step Apps Script workflow using Flookup to find, score and schedule deduplication in your spreadsheets. Includes scheduling tips for safe, repeatable runs on large datasets.
AI-Powered Semantic Fuzzy Matching in Google Sheets
How embeddings improve deduplication and hybrid strategies to combine with Flookup for high-accuracy results. Practical examples show when embeddings add value versus classical methods.
Hybrid Fuzzy Matching With AI in Google Sheets and Excel
Practical hybrid patterns for spreadsheet users: Apps Script and Office Script recipes, cost worked examples and benchmarks. Includes concise guidance on performance and cost trade-offs.
Python Data Cleaning and Fuzzy Matching Guide
A practical guide to data cleaning and fuzzy matching in Python using popular libraries. Discover how Flookup offers a powerful and more intuitive alternative for your data workflows, with code examples you can reuse.
Clean Data in Google Sheets With Formulas and AI
Learn how to use Flookup's menu tools and Sheets AI Assistant for powerful data cleaning in Google Sheets. Practical guide with real-world examples for fuzzy matching, deduplication and text standardisation.
The Hidden Costs of Dirty Data in Google Sheets
Dirty data can silently drain your resources. This article explores the hidden costs, explains the 1-10-100 rule and shows why investing in a solid data cleaning strategy is a business imperative. It includes simple metrics to help quantify the impact for your organisation.
How to Clean CRM Data in Google Sheets With Fuzzy Matching
The real cost of bad data runs into hundreds of billions of dollars a year. This guide shows how to clean and deduplicate CRM data in Google Sheets with Flookup's fuzzy matching and normalisation tools, so your customer data stays accurate and reliable.
The Hidden Reason AI Gives You Wrong Answers
Why AI agents hallucinate and how a Semantic Data Trust Layer prevents it. Learn how entity resolution in Google Sheets ensures high-integrity data for RAG pipelines and LLMs by resolving entities before they reach the model.
How to Remove Duplicates in Google Sheets
Go beyond basic duplicate removal. This guide shows you how to eliminate all types of duplicates in Google Sheets, including fuzzy and partial matches, using Flookup. Step-by-step examples make it easy to follow along on your own data.
Soundex in Google Sheets Guide and Alternatives
Understand the Soundex algorithm and how phonetic matching works for cleaning name data with practical examples to try.
SEO Site Migration and Redirects in Google Sheets
Simplify your next website migration. Learn how to use Flookup in Google Sheets to create accurate 301 redirect maps and manage 404 errors, ensuring a smooth SEO transition. Includes a downloadable template to jump-start the process.
OpenRefine Alternative for Data Cleaning
For users who need a powerful data cleaning tool that lives in Google Sheets, Flookup is the ideal OpenRefine alternative, offering seamless integration, scheduled automation and high-accuracy fuzzy matching. This article compares workflows so you can choose the right tool for each task.
Fuzzy Matching Guide for Excel on Mac
The Excel Fuzzy Lookup Add-in is not available on Mac. This guide covers the best alternatives, from Power Query to Flookup, for Mac users who need fuzzy matching in their spreadsheet workflow. Includes setup notes and recommended alternatives for common scenarios.
Top 10 Data Cleaning Tips for Google Sheets
Transform messy spreadsheets into clean, reliable data. This article provides ten actionable tips for normalising text, removing duplicates and automating your data cleaning workflows in Google Sheets, with quick wins you can apply today.
Fuzzy Matching Algorithms Explained
Go beyond exact matches. This guide demystifies fuzzy matching algorithms, explaining how they work, what similarity scores mean and how to apply them for smarter data cleaning. Includes recommended thresholds and examples to help you choose settings.
How to Automate Data Cleaning in Google Sheets
Stop wasting time on repetitive data cleaning. This tutorial teaches you how to record and use macros in Google Sheets to automate your cleaning tasks, boosting speed and accuracy. Offers practical examples and common pitfalls to avoid.
What Is Data Cleaning? A Guide for Google Sheets
Understand the fundamentals of data cleaning in Google Sheets. This guide covers key concepts, common data quality issues and practical strategies using Flookup Data Wrangler, plus a short checklist to get started.
The Best Alternative to Excel Fuzzy Lookup
Move beyond the limitations of the classic Excel Fuzzy Lookup Add-in. This article compares it to Flookup, a modern alternative that offers superior performance and cross-platform flexibility, with migration tips for Excel users.