How to Remove Duplicates in Excel: Simplify Spreadsheets [2024]

Streamline your data effortlessly with our guide on “How to Remove Duplicates in Excel.” Say goodbye to redundancy and enhance your workflow.

Despite the fact that Microsoft Excel is a commonly used tool, removing duplicate data can be difficult. Working with large files frequently necessitates the removal of Excel duplicates. Repeated entries might appear when multiple users have access to the same spreadsheet or when various tables are combined. Thus, the data wouldn’t be needed. The likelihood of finding duplicate entries increases as a dataset gets larger. If they are not acknowledged and dealt with correctly, it could be problematic.

Identify and Remove Duplicates

While duplicate data can occasionally be beneficial, it typically just makes analysis more challenging. Finding, highlighting, and examining the duplicates first is preferable to removing all of them at once.

• Select the cells that need to have any duplicate values removed. The best technique to eliminate duplicates from your data is to remove any outlines or subtotals.
• By selecting Data > Remove Duplicates and then checking or unchecking the columns you want to delete, you can remove duplicate records from your database and then click OK.
• The procedure entails finding duplicate rows and then deleting them. The list or data set needs to include the following for each of the methods below:

In Excel, how to Get Eliminate of Duplicate Values

Excel comes with a tool that makes it simple to eliminate useless data points from your collection. Let’s examine the steps that must be taken in order to remove duplicates from Excel.

• Step 1: To begin, select any cell or a specific range in the dataset that has duplicate data by clicking on it. If you click on just one cell, Excel will automatically select the range for you in the next step.

• Step 2: Next, locate and choose the “Remove Duplicates” option in step two. The Data Tools tab contains a section called Remove Duplicates.

• Step 3:  the dialogue box shown below appears. You can select the columns in which you want to compare and seek duplicate data. Check the box next to “My data has headers” if your data has column headings, then click OK. For the header option selected, the first row will not be taken into account when deleting duplicate data.

• Step 4: Excel will now remove any unnecessary rows and provide a dialogue box. The dialogue box shows a summary of how many duplicate values were found and removed along with the number of unique values.

• Step 5: The duplicate records have been erased.

• Let’s move on further and discover how to remove duplicates using Excel’s Advanced Filter tool.

Excel table duplication removal

If your data is prepared as an Excel table (often by hitting Ctrl + T), you can use the Table Design or Table Tools Design tab in the Ribbon to remove duplication.

How to eliminate duplicate rows in an Excel table:

• By clicking on the table, you can choose the duplicates you want to remove.
• Choose the Table Design or Table Tools Design ribbon tab.
• Decide to remove duplicates from the Tools section. A conversation box appears.

• If your table has headers, make sure My data has headers and is chosen.
• In the columns box, choose or check the field(s) that are duplicate-free. You can select any number of fields, including all of them (columns). The amount of records being removed is shown in a dialogue box. Choose OK.
• Excel will remove redundant rows and provide a summary of how many redundant rows were removed.
• The Ribbon’s Table Design or Table Tools Design tab’s Tools group contains a button called Remove Duplicates:
• You may also use the Remove Duplicates command on the Data tab of a table.

Identify how to remove duplicate values or perform filtering for unique values.

In order to get a list of unique values, you can either delete duplicate values or filter for them. The objectives of all the tasks are the same. However, there is a crucial difference. Duplicate values are briefly hidden when you filter for unique values, but if you decide to remove them, they are gone forever.

The comparison of duplicate values must also be understood to be based on the contents of the cell rather than its underlying value. When two cells with the same date value are formatted, for instance, as “3/9/2019” and “Mar 9, 2019,” those two values are regarded as different values. As a result, make it a habit to check before eliminating duplicates. Try filtering or conditional formatting unique values to get the results you want.

Apply a Unique Values Filter

Use the following techniques to look for distinct values: The initial step is choosing the range of cells.

• If you want it to work, make sure the active cell is in a table. Then, in the Sort & Filter group, locate and select the Advanced filter option.

• The Advanced Filter popup box will appear on your screen. You can choose from the following possibilities:

• To filter the current collection of cells or tables, click Filter the list .
• If you want to move the filter’s outcomes somewhere else, do the following:
• Select “Copy to another location” to copy the values.
• In the “Copy to” box, type the cell reference for the cell to which the output values should be copied.

• By choosing the “Collapse Dialog” option, the popup window can be momentarily hidden ().
• The menu that appears after selecting a worksheet cell, choose “Expand.”
• After checking the “Unique records only” checkbox, click OK.

What Excel Formulas Can I Use to Get Rid of Duplicates?

To find duplicates that might have extra spaces and aren’t identified as duplicates, you can enter a formula.

• The plan that includes: the TRIM tool to eliminate leading and trailing spaces as well as spaces between words.
• Cells can be combined with the CONCATENATE operator (&). (although you can use the CONCATENATE or CONCAT functions as well)
• To use the Remove Duplicates command.
• first add a new calculated column (also known as a helper column) to your data.
• For instance, if you wanted to remove excess spaces from a cell (like C2) and merge the values from C2 and D2, you could make the following formula:
• TRIM(A2) AND TRIM

You can insert the following formula in the first data cell of a new calculated column as a structured reference formula where you refer to field names in order to merge cells from columns in a table (which contains columns for first and last names) and remove extra spaces: 

• TRIM (@[ROLL.NO]) & @[ Name of the student])

• When you press Enter, Excel will fill up the calculation for the full column.
• The structural reference formula has been entered in cell C2 In the table example below using the TRIM and CONCATENATE operators, and Excel has color-coded the references:

What is the shortcut in Excel for removing duplicates?

Use the following keyboard shortcuts to swiftly eliminate duplicate values from Excel:

• Select the data that you want to get rid of duplicates from.
• Under the Data tab, choose the “Remove duplicates” option.
• Any column in the selected data can be kept or removed by selecting or deselecting it in the ensuing dialogue box.
• Click OK to eliminate the duplicates.

We trust you found our guide on “How to Remove Duplicates in Excel” valuable for optimizing your data. Say goodbye to redundancy and boost productivity!