I just starting working at a school that uses google drive for everything.

There are SO many spreadsheets with mostly the same information, but slight differences between them all. I want to streamline the information to one place but my way of doing it one by one is inefficient, taking up too much time and I’m worried about human error where I know a computer can do this. I just don’t know how to use spreadsheets.

I need to be able to 1) apply a short list of names to a giant list of names and pull them all out at once (for students who graduated last year). and 2.) locate and consolidate duplicate info into one row/name

Where can I learn how to do this?

And/or -

Is there a better - but still free - app for this?

Sorry if this is not the right sub to ask!