Match formula required please

Is this waht you meant? I used conditional formatting with these formulae:

=COUNTIFS($A$1:$C$9,A1)=2
=COUNTIFS($A$1:$C$9,A1)=3
=COUNTIFS($A$1:$C$9,A1)=4
=COUNTIFS($A$1:$C$9,A1)>4

Will you please attach a SMALL sample Excel workbook (10-20 rows of data is usually enough)? Please don't attach a picture of one (no-one will want to re-type all your stuff before starting).

1. Make sure that your sample data are truly REPRESENTATIVE of your real data. The use of unrepresentative data is very frustrating and can lead to long delays in reaching a solution.

2. Make sure that your desired solution is also shown (mock up the results manually).

3. Make sure that all confidential information is removed first!!

4. Try to avoid using merged cells. They cause lots of problems!

Unfortunately the attachment icon doesn't work at the moment. So, to attach an Excel file you have to do the following: Just before posting, scroll down to Go Advanced and then scroll down to Manage Attachments. Now follow the instructions at the top of that screen.

Hello,

thank you in advance for looking into these issues I have attached a spread sheet with class names/student names

on importing names into the sheet there will be some spaces or times (2.25) next to the name can the match function work on matching the names even if there is a time or blank space before the name or after it in the cell.

1, if there is a space before or after the name no duplicate is found (see example in the sheet)
2, if the name is entered with a time slot duplicate name is not found. i.e. 2.25 zoe and zoe no duplicate found

I would like duplicates to be high lighted.

Not easy. You might need VBA to do this in one step. Here's a workaround. Import the data as usual and then extract the bits you need using this formula:


=IFERROR(PROPER(MID(TRIM(A3),FIND(" ",TRIM(A3))+1,255)),PROPER(TRIM(A3)))