A common scenario in a data analysis project is the need to first identify and eliminate duplicate records.  A typical example might be where you need to eliminate duplicate rows with information that matches in columns like last name, street address, phone number, etc.

Here’s how to do the job and it’s surprisingly simple:

What you will end up doing is making a copy of your data that leaves out the duplicate rows.

  • Click somewhere in the data area
  • Select │Data│ Filter│Advance Filter from the menu
  • Check the Unique Records Only box.
  • Click Ok.  This hides all the duplicate rows.
  • Highlight the slimmed down data area.
  • Copy and paste the data to the new location.

The copy will omit the hidden rows so that you now have a version of your data without duplicates.

One other way to work with eliminating duplicate information and many other aspects of Excel is to install and use the ASAP utility.  This is a great Excel add-in.


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