Microsoft Office Excel allows you to organize your data in many different ways. It allows you to calculate the costs of your company, keep track of customers and organize a mailing list. Before using the database with your precious information, it will be useful to check that there are no duplicates, to avoid spending money by repeating unnecessary operations. Here's how you get rid of duplicate data in Excel.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Remove Duplicates Manually
Step 1. Open your Excel workbook
Select the sheet you want to check.
Step 2. Select the data area you want to check for duplicates
You can select data by scrolling with the mouse while holding down the left button, or you can select entire rows and columns by clicking on the row number or column letter.
Step 3. Select the 'Data' tab on the Excel toolbar
Select the 'Advanced Filter' tool. You will find the range of cells selected for verification. In case of errors in the selection you can modify the displayed value
Step 4. Select the 'Advanced Filter' item from the drop down menu
This feature can be included in the 'Filter' or 'Sort & Filter' group, depending on the version of Excel you are using.
Step 5. Select the 'Copy unique records' checkbox
This way the duplicate values will be hidden allowing you to have a copy of your data containing only unique values.
Step 6. Specify an area of the sheet where you want the new filtered data to be copied
You can also decide to save the new data in the same location as the original ones, in this case, however, the duplicate values will only be hidden, and not deleted as in the creation of a new list.
Step 7. Save the new list of values, or database, with a new name to permanently delete duplicate values
Method 2 of 2: Use the Duplicate Manager
Step 1. Launch Excel 2010 or a later version
Select the sheet you want to check.
Step 2. Save your database with a new name
Doing so will allow you to have a copy of the original data in case of errors.
Step 3. Look for the toolbar at the top of the Excel window
In Excel 2011, this section is colored green. Select the 'Data' tab.
Step 4. Select the group of columns and rows where you want to check for duplicate data
To select entire columns or rows, click the letter or number of the header.
Step 5. Select the 'Remove Duplicates' button in the 'Data Tools' section of the toolbar
Step 6. Find the number of duplicates present in the selected data
Select the 'Remove Duplicates' button located at the bottom of the 'Remove Duplicates' panel, it will appear only in case duplicate values are found.
