Use Excel's Advanced Filter to delete duplicates in a list

by Mary Ann Richardson | Apr 11, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Microsoft Office, Mary Ann Richardson, Use Excel, Advanced Filter, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office Suite Excel Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: When you need to find the unique entries in an Excel list, the quickest way to find them is to use the Advanced Filter. Mary Ann Richardson shows us how to use this handy feature.

When you need to find the unique entries in an Excel list, the quickest way to locate them is with the Advanced Filter. For example, you have a list of homes sold by date and location. You would like to see a listing of the cities where the homes were sold. Because you sold multiple in homes in a number of cities, the data in the City column contains a number of duplicates. To produce a city list without duplicates, follow these steps:

1. Select the City column.
2. Go to Filter | Advanced Filter.
3. Click in the Copy To Another Location text box, then click on a cell in the same worksheet where you want to locate the new list.
4. Click the Unique Records check box.
5. Click OK.

Excel will list the unique values found in the City column at the designated location.

Miss a tip?

Check out the Microsoft Excel archive, and catch up on our most recent Excel tips.

Help users increase productivity by automatically signing up for TechRepublic's free Microsoft Office Suite newsletter, featuring Word, Excel, and Access tips, delivered each Wednesday.

Print/View all Posts Comments on this article

Brilliant paul@... | 04/12/06