topic Re: Names Match in Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

Names Match

nkgnyarko — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:04:14 GMT

I have two Excel sheets:

Sheet 1 (Master Sheet):

This contains the full list of users, along with details such as their roles and statuses.

Sheet 2 (Target Sheet):

This contains a smaller, selected list of users, and it also has columns for roles and statuses.

I want to:

Identify users who appear in both the Master Sheet and the Target Sheet.

Match users by name, even if the names are not exactly the same (there may be small spelling or formatting differences).

Once a match is found, extract:

User details from the Master Sheet (e.g., role, status)

User ID and name from the Target Sheet

Output a combined result showing information from both sheets for the matched users.

Example

Master Sheet

Master ID	Full Name	Role	Status
M001	Brown Nana Nyary	Admin	Active
M002	Sarah Ann Mensah	Editor	Inactive

Target Sheet

Target ID	Name	Selected	Role	Status
T101	Brown N. Nyary	Yes	Admin	Active
T102	B. A. Mensah	No	Editor	Active

Expected Output

Master ID	Target ID	Name(Target)	Name(Master)	Role	Status
M001	T101	Brown N. Nyary	Brown Nana Nyary	Admin	Active

Even though the names are not exactly the same, they are treated as a match.

Re: Names Match

alexnajm — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:17:41 GMT

If you can shorten middle names to middle initials for every instance, I'd go that route. Otherwise, Fuzzy Match is your answer! Tool Mastery | Fuzzy Match correspondance partielle fuzzyübereinstimmung

Re: Names Match

flying008 — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:40:18 GMT

Hi, @nkgnyarko

FYI.

Re: Names Match

nkgnyarko — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:32:38 GMT

Is there any way the fuzzy match can work like the one in power query, the fuzzy match in alteryx seems a bit confusing to use.

Re: Names Match

nkgnyarko — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:34:51 GMT

Thank you for the solution.
I'll like to point out that the names in the target sheet may be misspelled or even rearranged and may not necessarily contain middle names.

I'll try the workflow and see how it goes

Re: Names Match

alexnajm — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 12:48:05 GMT

@nkgnyarko this is the Fuzzy Match option you have in Alteryx. If you want to use an API or Python you could try that too - not sure what options are out there but I'm sure there's something!