Start at the first difference
See a code point and a name where known, plus a short escaped excerpt. Regular spaces, non-breaking spaces, zero-width spaces and line breaks become visible without changing the values.
LOOKS THE SAME. IS IT?
Find the hidden difference.
Two spreadsheet values won’t match? Inspect the exact characters, including invisible spaces.
Local by designYour text stays in this browser.
01 Your two valuesPaste one cell value into each field.
0 / 10,000 UTF-16 units
0 / 10,000 UTF-16 units
Exact text equality only. Spreadsheet formulas may use different matching rules. Neither value is cleaned or replaced.
02 What we found
Your explanation will appear hereA regular space and a non-breaking space can look identical. We’ll show where the values first diverge.
Why TRIM can leave two names looking the same
Suppose a copied spreadsheet cell contains the fictional name below. The names look alike, but the space between the words is different.
Value A · copied text
Mina Patel
Mina\u00A0PatelValue B · typed text
Mina Patel
Mina\u0020PatelThe first difference is at position 5: A contains a non-breaking space (U+00A0); B contains a regular space (U+0020). Replacing just U+00A0 with a regular space makes these two example values exactly equal.
Excel’s TRIM function does not remove U+00A0 by itself. A targeted formula is =SUBSTITUTE(A1,UNICHAR(160)," "). Put it in another cell, replace A1 with the source cell, and check the result. It replaces non-breaking spaces only; it is not a general cleanup formula. Microsoft explains the TRIM limitation.
A focused explanation, with your originals intact
Look-alike is not equal
Accents can have different Unicode encodings. Emoji can contain meaningful joiners. This tool reports exact text differences and a few supported explanations; it does not merge names, identify people, or certify text as safe.
Keep spreadsheet rules in mind
This checks the text you paste, not cell formatting, formulas, numeric types or spreadsheet lookup behavior. A browser or source application may already have transformed text before it reaches the clipboard.
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Inspection runs locally. We do not upload your text or put it in a link, cookie, or browser storage. Copying or downloading a report is your choice; that report includes the complete values as escaped text. Refreshing clears the inputs.
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