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.
How to Dedupe Airtable Records in Bulk With an Undo
Dedupe an Airtable base in bulk. Pull the table locally, match with fuzzy logic and write reviewed values back in batches with a full undo.
How to Clean Google Sheets Without Formulas
Clean a Google Sheet without formulas. Pull the range into the desktop app, standardise and dedupe locally and write reviewed values back to the same cells.
How to Dedupe Salesforce Leads and Contacts Without Losing Data
Pull Salesforce records with a read only query, clean them with fuzzy matching on your own machine and write back reviewed changes with undo.
How to Clean Email Lists in Google Sheets
Trim, standardise, validate format, flag domain typos and deduplicate email lists in one sheet. A practical workflow that prepares your list before mailbox verification.
How to Find Duplicates with Conditional Formatting and COUNTIF in Google Sheets
Highlight duplicates in Google Sheets with COUNTIF for one column and COUNTIFS for full rows. Includes a measured accuracy test on a 1,000 row sample.
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.
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 where you 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 that compares two CSV files by a key column and shows added, removed and changed rows instantly, with a match rate and downloadable diff. Your data never leaves your browser.
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, A Step-by-Step Guide
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.
Top 5 Fuzzy Matching Software and Tools
Flookup, Microsoft Fuzzy Lookup, OpenRefine, fuzzywuzzy, RapidFuzz and Power Query compared on setup, deduplication, profiling and cost. Includes a full comparison table.
Fuzzy Name Matching, a Practical Guide
How to match customer and company names despite typos, abbreviations and name order differences. Algorithms, normalisation, tokenisation and the tools that automate it.
Fuzzy Address Matching, How to Match Addresses in Google 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, How to Prepare Clean Data for QuickStatements
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.
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.
RapidFuzz vs Flookup Data Wrangler, Code vs No-Code on Mac
Compare Python RapidFuzz scoring with no-code fuzzy matching in Google Sheets. Covers pip setup on Mac, process.extract cutoffs and when to stay in the sheet.
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, Which Google Sheets Add-on Should You Use?
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 Platform or Spreadsheet-Native Data Preparation?
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.
WinPure vs Flookup Data Wrangler, Enterprise Suite or Desktop Data Cleaning?
Enterprise data quality suite or desktop data cleaning? Compare WinPure Clean and Match with Flookup Data Wrangler Desktop on profiling, cleansing, deduplication, golden records and database pulls.
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.
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.
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 Sheets AI Assistant
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 for Marketing Teams in Google Sheets
CRM data cleaning for marketing teams in Google Sheets. Normalise accounts, remove duplicate contacts and duplicate leads, then reimport clean masters to HubSpot or Salesforce.
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, A Guide to Phonetic Matching
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
Flookup is an OpenRefine alternative that runs inside Google Sheets, offering scheduled automation and fuzzy matching with a similarity score. 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 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.