Remove Duplicates Feature

When you are working with data sets, you may need to see a unique listing of items that are recorded in a column, i.e. create a list of unique values. You can also remove duplicate rows in a similar fashion. Duplicate rows are also referred to as Duplicate Records. In the data world, columns are known as fields and rows are known as records. The following is an example of how to remove duplicates in a column, but it can also be applied to an entire row.

In the data sample below, let’s say you want a unique listing of all the customers who have placed many transactions. The data has 9994 transactions (first row are column headers), and we want a unique list of customers.

Steps below to generate a unique list:
  1. Select the customer names and Copy to the clipboard
    Shortcut: You can use Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow to select from top cell in a column, to last cell at the bottom of the column
  2. Paste the names to another sheet (leave the data selected, but adjust the width of the column)
  3. Click on the DATA tab on the ribbon and Choose Remove Duplicates
  4. Click OK to accept the column
    Note: The List now displays a unique list of names, and in this example, the prompt indicates 9201 duplicates were removed and 793 unique values were found.
  5. Click OK to dismiss the message prompt
  6. Sort the Customer Names list in an Ascending Order
Visual steps: