Is there an easy way to check for duplicate entries?

**Barons** · 07-06-2011, 02:23 PM

Hello,

I'm trying to clean up a spreadsheet so that I can add our customers to a call list. The spreadsheet has an entry for each purchase so there are many duplicate entries. Is there a way I can find these duplicates?

I have columns with phone numbers that would probably be the best way or also by last name. I've sorted the spreadsheet by last name and I've been going though and deleting the duplicates but this is proving to be a very time consuming process as I have just under 15k entries to go though.

Thanks for the help.

**jirobinson13** · 07-06-2011, 02:26 PM

You can use conditional formatting to find duplicates, it's fairly easy.

**Barons** · 07-06-2011, 02:29 PM

I don't know very much about the program. I've read that there was an advance filtering option that would allow me to do this but I can't find it.

Would you mind explaining how to access the conditional formatting option?

**Barons** · 07-06-2011, 02:31 PM

Never mind I just found it!

Thanks so much for your help. =P

**martindwilson** · 07-06-2011, 02:31 PM

you could advance filter,unique on the phone numbers. also excel 2007 has a remove duplicates feature
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...010073943.aspx

**Palmetto** · 07-06-2011, 02:35 PM

If the data are only name and phone numbers, try using Advanced Filter, setting the option to copy unique values to a new location.

Or, use a helper column and formula like this:

=IF(COUNTIF($E$1:$E1,E1)>1,"dupe","")

Where column-C contains the phone numbers. The formula return "dupe" on every occurrence greater than one and a blank if there is one occurence.

Apply auto-filter on the helper column to show "dupe" then delete the visible rows.

Test it on a back up copy of the data to confirm you get the results you want.