NORTHMELD PRACTICAL GUIDES
Combine Excel worksheets when column order differs
Select only the worksheets that contain records and match columns by their headers. January uses Code, Amount while February uses Amount, Code. Northmeld aligns the same named columns and appends all four records without moving amounts into the Code column.
Prepare and download
Download sheets-input.xlsx. It contains January and February, with two records each, and a separate Notes sheet. Both data sheets use the first row as the header. The comparison table below shows their input values aligned under the same headers; open the source workbook to see February's reversed column order.
Reproduce the result
Select the data worksheets
Import sheets-input.xlsx in the workspace. In Confirm import, select January and February. Leave Notes unchecked. Keep Header row (1-based) at 1.
Require matching column names
Under When worksheet columns differ, keep Require matching columns. The order can differ, but the two selected sheets must contain the same header names. This sample has Code and Amount in both.
Check the four-row preview
Read down Code: 00101, 00102, 00103, 00104. Their amounts must be 10, 20, 30, 0. Do not choose a numeric conversion for Code. A zero amount is a real value, not a missing cell.
Export and reopen
Confirm the import and export XLSX or CSV. Compare the four rows with the results below. The XLSX keeps text identifiers and numeric amounts; the export is one combined table, not a copy of the original workbook's tabs.
Actual sample results
- Input data rows
- 4
- Output data rows
- 4
- Duplicates removed
- 0
- Two selected worksheets produced four rows. Reversed columns in February were aligned by header name.
- All four identifiers remained strings and all amounts remained numbers after XLSX export and re-import.
- The importer retained source-sheet references internally. Selecting Notes as well with strict matching caused an error instead of silently merging unrelated columns.
| Code | Amount |
|---|---|
"00101" | 10 |
"00102" | 20 |
"00103" | 30 |
"00104" | 0 |
| Code | Amount |
|---|---|
"00101" | 10 |
"00102" | 20 |
"00103" | 30 |
"00104" | 0 |
Limits and human review
- Appending does not deduplicate records, join customers or total repeated amounts. Those are separate operations with different rules.
- Headers must identify the same field. Code and Product code are different names; rename deliberately or review the Keep all columns option. This tutorial does not test the latter mode.
- The source contains plain values. Workbook formatting, formulas, charts and original tab layout are outside this verification. Source-sheet references checked internally are not extra columns in these downloads.