How to Dedupe Records in a Spreadsheet

WilBill

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posted on 15 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Many of us deal with very large lists in Excel, such as large mailing lists. Excel 2007 has a built-in deduping feature, but deduping can be done in almost any spreadsheet software.

Steps

Open the Spreadsheet that might have duplicate entries.

Sorting: Highlight the columns and click on Sort.Dedupe Records in a Spreadsheet Step 2Bullet1.jpg Sort the chosen column containing duplicate fields in ascending order.Dedupe Records in a Spreadsheet Step 2Bullet2.jpg

Type the following formula into the first empty cell in the row =IF(A2=A1,0,1) . Be sure to modify cell references to suit your sheet.

Fill the formula down the column (or paste special).

Filter out the duplicates: Select the column with the formulas and click filter.Dedupe Records in a Spreadsheet Step 5Bullet1.jpg Filter the zerosDedupe Records in a Spreadsheet Step 5Bullet2.jpg Delete the entire row that has a '0' field, not just the data within that row. Duplicate entries will now be weeded out of your sheet.Dedupe Records in a Spreadsheet Step 5Bullet3.jpg