Brute-force subset sum matching in Excel using a single dynamic-array formula
I’ve been experimenting with subset-style transaction matching / reconciliation problems directly inside Excel.
This demo uses a single dynamic-array formula (no VBA / no add-ins) to brute-force combinations and return exact matches for a target amount.
It works surprisingly well for short normalized lists, but also demonstrates pretty quickly why these problems become computationally expensive as the search space grows (2^n subsets).
The Excel-only demo workbook shown above is:
Subsetra_Lite.xlsx
That eventually led me to build a larger Python implementation with more advanced pruning logic for heavier datasets.
Would be interested to hear how others here approach grouped transaction matching / reconciliation workflows in Excel.
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