How to remove duplicates in excel and keep one

Answer

To remove duplicates in Excel and keep one instance, follow these steps:

1. Select the Data Range
   Click and drag to highlight the cells where you want to remove duplicates. Include all relevant columns if duplicates are determined by multiple fields.

2. Open the Remove Duplicates Tool

   • On Windows, go to the Data tab and click Remove Duplicates in the Data Tools group.

   • On Mac, go to the Data menu and select Remove Duplicates.

3. Choose Columns for Duplicate Check
   A dialog box appears listing all columns in the selected range.

   • Check the columns where duplicates should be detected.

   • Leave other columns unchecked if their values should not affect duplicate detection.

4. Remove Duplicates
   Click OK. Excel will remove all duplicate rows, keeping the first occurrence of each unique value.

5. Review the Result
   Excel displays a message showing the number of duplicates removed and the remaining unique values.

Example:
If you have a list of email addresses in column A with repeated entries, highlighting the column and using Remove Duplicates will delete all repeated emails while keeping one copy of each unique email.

Notes:

• Removing duplicates is permanent. Save a backup before applying it.

• The first occurrence of a duplicate is always preserved; subsequent repeats are deleted.

• Duplicates are determined based on exact matches; formatting differences do not count.

This method works efficiently for large datasets and ensures that only one unique entry remains for each repeated value.

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