In your sheet "Y" add a helper column (at end) and enter:
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A1,X!$A$1:$A$4,1,0)),"Not Found","OK") << where A1 is your
reference in "Y" and $A$1:$A$4 is your unique references in sheet "X"
Copy down.
Do a autofilter on the helper column for "Not Found" and delete those rows.
Unfilter and delete the helper column.

Try this on A COPY of your file, not the original... !!!


"George" wrote in message
...
I have 2 spreadsheets. Sheet "X" contains approx 250 rows
with the rows in column A containing a unique reference,
other 8 columns various data. Spreadsheet "Y "contains
say 2000 rows with the rows, column A containing a unique
reference. Etc.
In spreadsheet "Y" among column A references are the same
unique references contained in my spreadsheet "X". I am
looking for a method to compare the two sheets and to
eliminate the records in sheet "Y" that do not correspond
to the references in spreadsheet "X" column A.

Many thanks,
Geo