Why can't I remove duplicates to leave unique values

[Gary7558]

Hi, I'm hoping that someome will be able to provide me with some guidence on a task that sounds easy but has totally frustrated me and resulted in a very labourious process to achieve the job I neeeded to resolve. In essence the problem was removing duplicate values from two adjacent columns to leave just those that were unique. eg. in column A, I might have the numbers 1-30, in coumn B, I would have just the even numbers from 1-30. I wanted to compare these lists, remove the duplicates and leave just the unique numbers ( which would of course in this simple scenario be the odd numbers from 1-30.)

I'm using Excel 2010. I found that using conditional formatting in the syles tab, it was very easy to highlight the duplicate values, or the unique values, but in a list which contained thousands of numbers that didn't really help me.

Under the Data tab I found the remove duplicates option and thought this must be it, but no ! I've highlighted both columns, clicked the remove duplicates option and nothing!
The results I get depending on whether I tick the option to include just column A, just Column B, or both, vary, from "no duplicates found, if both or just column A is selected. Or if just column B is selected, it tells me that 14 duplicates were found and removed, but to my complete frustration it leaves me with two columns, Column A has the numbers 1-16 inc, and column B still showns the even numbers between 1-30. This is absolutely not the answer I was hoping for as both columns still have duplicate numbers in them.

I'm sure its a simple thing, but I've found myself shouting at the screen, so please for the sake of my sanity, can someone help me out here. I'm not a regular excel user, but have managed to get by until now with a little help from internet tutorials when i get stuck, but this one has beat me. I have resorted to highlighting unique values and manually cutting and pasting them into a new column, which is taking hours and I know there must be an easier way of doing this. Thank you in advance.

[Glenn Kennedy]

If you select one column, it removes duplicates from within that column. If you selct two columns, AFAIK, it looks at colA and col B together...

What output do you want to see? Please post a sample sheet, with a mocked up solution.


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.

[Gary7558]

Thanks Glenn,
Unfortunately the attachment I tried to upload wouldnt work, I think maybe I've made too few posts?

[Glenn Kennedy]

No. There is no restriction (except on size 1 Mb). i don't want a 1 Mb SAMPLE sheet. You made a mistake somewhere. Try again!! Don't forget, I said the attach icon doesn't work (post 2).