[RESOLVED] Need a clever way to manipulate strings

[TheBionicOrange]

OK heres where I am at.
I have a list of string texts stored in a db table.
I am reading an Excel workbook, and trying to see if what I am reading from Excel matches any of the strings in my db table.
The problem I have is I am kind of finding a match, but the wording is slightly different.
For example ...

Spreadsheet text is "Contractors to read and sign safety instructions in branch log book"

DB text equivalent is : "Contractors to read and sign safety instructions in the front of the branch log book"

As it stands I am using the INSTR function to search the DB text with the spreadsheet text. As its not quite there due to a slight wording change the function is returning zero.

What I need to do is try and be a bit cleverer with how I manipulate the strings. I thought of maybe comparing only the first 15 or 20 characters, but the wording could be slightly different at the start, in the middle, or towards the end, so that would only get me so far.

Can anyone think of a more structured way I could tackle this ?
Maybe someone has done something similar before ?

Thanks in advance.

p.s. The INSTR function is the last thing you need when nursing the mother of all hangovers