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This article will show you how to remove duplicates in MS Excel. Microsoft Excel is a popular program, especially for Business Analysis, but it can be hard to get rid of and get rid of duplicate data. People who work with large datasets often need to get rid of duplicates in Excel. When you combine different tables or give a lot of people access to the same document, your spreadsheet might have entries that are repeated.
So, the information was already known. The more records there are in a dataset, the more likely it is that there will be duplicates. It can be a problem if they are not found and dealt with properly. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Microsoft Excel Support site. Even though Microsoft Excel is mostly used for calculations, its sheets are often used as databases to keep track of inventories, make sales reports, or keep mailing lists. As a database gets bigger, it’s common for there to be a lot of duplicate rows in it.
Even if your huge database only has a few duplicate records, those few can cause a lot of trouble. For example, you might have to send the same document to the same person more than once, or you might have to calculate the same numbers twice in a summary report. So, it makes sense to check a database for duplicate entries before you use it so you don’t waste time doing the same work twice. Here are the steps to remove duplicates in MS Excel.
How to remove duplicates in Excel
- Open your Excel spreadsheet.
- Select the range of cells or columns where you want to remove duplicates.
- Go to the “Data” tab in the Excel ribbon.
- Click on the “Remove Duplicates” button. A dialog box will appear.
- By default, Excel will select all columns in your selected range. If you want to remove duplicates based on specific columns, uncheck the columns that are not relevant.
- Click the “OK” button to remove duplicates.
- Excel will display a message box indicating how many duplicate values were found and removed.
- Click “OK” to close the message box.
How to find duplicates in Excel
- Open your Excel spreadsheet.
- Select the range of cells or columns where you want to check for duplicates.
- Go to the “Home” tab in the Excel ribbon.
- Click on the “Conditional Formatting” button. A dropdown menu will appear.
- Hover over the “Highlight Cells Rules” option, and then select “Duplicate Values” from the submenu.
- A “Duplicate Values” dialog box will appear. Choose the formatting style for the duplicate values, such as highlighting them in bold or using a different color.
- You can also choose whether to highlight the first occurrence of each duplicate or all the duplicate values. Select the appropriate option.
- Click the “OK” button to apply the conditional formatting and find the duplicates.
- Excel will highlight the duplicate values in the selected range according to the formatting style you chose.
- You can now easily identify the duplicate values in your Excel spreadsheet.
How to replace duplicates with blanks in MS Excel
- Open your Excel spreadsheet.
- Select the range of cells or columns where you want to replace duplicates with blanks.
- Go to the “Home” tab in the Excel ribbon.
- Click on the “Conditional Formatting” button. A dropdown menu will appear.
- Hover over the “Highlight Cells Rules” option, and then select “Duplicate Values” from the submenu.
- A “Duplicate Values” dialog box will appear. Select the formatting style for the duplicate values or leave it as default.
- Choose the option “Duplicate” in the “Format cells that contain” dropdown.
- Click the “OK” button to apply the conditional formatting.
- Now, go to the “Home” tab again and click on the “Find & Select” button in the Excel ribbon.
- Select “Go To Special” from the dropdown menu.
- In the “Go To Special” dialog box, select the “Constants” option and uncheck all other options.
- Click the “OK” button. This will select only the cells with duplicate values.
- Press the “Delete” key on your keyboard to clear the contents of the selected cells. This will replace the duplicates with blanks.
- Finally, remove the conditional formatting by going to the “Home” tab, clicking on the “Conditional Formatting” button, and selecting “Clear Rules” from the submenu.
- Choose “Clear Rules from Entire Sheet” to remove the conditional formatting from the entire sheet.
FAQs
Getting rid of duplicate data in SQL can help speed up queries and save space. In SQL, we can get rid of duplicates in a table by using the DISTINCT keyword, the GROUP BY clause, and the INNER JOIN statement.
Advanced Excel skills include being able to make graphs and tables, use spreadsheets effectively, and use calculations and automation to process large amounts of data. With the rise of big data and data analytics, having advanced Excel skills is very helpful both when looking for a job and when doing tasks at work.