A discrepancy analysis reports a fan-out of two cells, one working from the centre of the report leftwards, the other heading rightwards.
The purpose of the report is to show what is the same, and what is different, in the derivations of the two cells. To this end, OAK, identifies cells that coincide in the two precedent hierarchies.
For example, if cell 1 has the formula =A1+B2+C3, and cell 2 shows =B2+C3+Z9, then a discrepancy analysis will
•make a list of links to those precedent cells, in the order in which they are mentioned in the two formulas
•use color to signal that a reference to B2 appears among the precedents of both cells
•do the same thing for cell C3, with a different color to distinguish them from the first pair
•make it possible to navigate quickly between these pairs by hyperlinking them together
•leave the references to cells A1 and Z9 uncolored to show that they each appear in one of the formulas only.
The cells that are cross linked, through color and hyperlinks, will in many cases play corresponding roles in their respective calculations, but there is no guarantee that they will. They are merely the first references on either side of the analysis that OAK detected as coinciding.
For OAK to cross link pairs of cells in this way, the formulas must refer to exactly the same cell. However, there are times when OAK will give a more useful answer if it makes this pairing by value. Then cells will be indicated as matching if they contain the same thing, rather than concern the same address.