How to find duplicates in excel

Answer

To find duplicates in Excel, select your data range, click the Home tab, choose Conditional Formatting, select Highlight Cells Rules, and click Duplicate Values.

Using Conditional Formatting to Highlight Duplicates

Select the range of cells you want to check for duplicates. Click the Home tab in the ribbon. Click Conditional Formatting in the Styles group. Select Highlight Cells Rules from the dropdown menu. Click Duplicate Values. Choose your preferred formatting color from the dialog box. Click OK to apply the highlighting.

The duplicate cells will display with your chosen background color. This method marks all instances of duplicate values, including the first occurrence.

Finding Duplicates with the Remove Duplicates Feature

Select your data range, including headers. Click the Data tab in the ribbon. Click Remove Duplicates in the Data Tools group. Check the columns you want to scan for duplicates in the dialog box. Click OK to execute the removal.

Excel will display a message showing how many duplicate values were removed and how many unique values remain. This method permanently deletes duplicate rows, keeping only the first occurrence of each value.

Using COUNTIF to Identify Duplicates

Insert a helper column next to your data. Enter the formula =COUNTIF($A$2:$A$100,A2)>1 in the first cell of the helper column, replacing the range with your actual data range. Press Enter. Copy the formula down to all rows in your dataset.

Cells containing TRUE indicate duplicate values. Cells showing FALSE represent unique values. Sort or filter by the helper column to group duplicates together.

Finding Duplicates Across Multiple Columns

Select your data range, including all columns to check. Click the Data tab. Click Remove Duplicates. Check all column boxes you want to include in the duplicate comparison. Click OK.

Excel will treat rows as duplicates only when all selected columns contain matching values. This method identifies complete row duplicates rather than single-cell duplicates.

Using Advanced Filter to Extract Unique Values

Select your data range. Click the Data tab. Click Advanced in the Sort & Filter group. Select "Copy to another location" in the dialog box. Choose your destination range in the "Copy to" field. Check "Unique records only". Click OK.

Excel will copy unique values to your specified location, leaving the original data unchanged. The duplicate entries remain in the source range but do not appear in the filtered output.

Highlighting Duplicates Except First Occurrence

Select your data range. Click Home, then Conditional Formatting. Select New Rule. Choose "Use a formula to determine which cells to format". Enter the formula =COUNTIF($A$2:A2, A2)>1, adjusting the range to match your data. Click Format to choose your highlighting style. Click OK twice.

This formula highlights only the second and subsequent occurrences of duplicate values. The first instance of each value remains unhighlighted.

Finding Duplicates in Different Sheets

Create a helper column in the first sheet. Enter the formula =COUNTIF(Sheet2!A:A, A2)>0, where Sheet2 is your comparison sheet and A is the column to check. Press Enter and copy the formula down.

Cells displaying TRUE contain values that exist in both sheets. Cells showing FALSE contain unique values found only in the current sheet.

Using VLOOKUP to Identify Duplicates Between Two Lists

Add a helper column to your first list. Enter =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet2!A:A,1,FALSE),"Unique") in the first cell. Copy the formula down the column.

Cells displaying the actual value indicate duplicates found in the second list. Cells showing "Unique" represent values not found in the comparison list.

Differences Between Windows and Mac

The ribbon layout and keyboard shortcuts differ between Windows and Mac versions. Windows users press Ctrl+Shift+L to apply filters, while Mac users press Command+Shift+F. The Remove Duplicates feature appears in the same location on both platforms under the Data tab. All formulas and conditional formatting rules function identically across both operating systems.

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