How can I identify Duplicates in a column?

**RDMRDM** · 07-28-2009, 04:27 PM

I have a column, Column "I", in excel. I have list of a couple hundred records. In this column, I want a formula that will identify any duplicates. There may be more than one set of duplicates, so I guess I could have multiple formulas, then if I find a duplicate, I could delete the record, then have the formula identify if there is another duplicate. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

**Leith Ross** · 07-28-2009, 11:11 PM

Hello RDMRDM,

Here is macro to remove the duplicates. This works with Excel 2000 and later. This starts at "I1" of the Active Sheet. You can change the starting cell if you need to. It is marked in red. Run this on a copy of your data to be sure it works like you want.

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Adding the Macro
1. Copy the macro above pressing the keys CTRL+C
2. Open your workbook
3. Press the keys ALT+F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor
4. Press the keys ALT+I to activate the Insert menu
5. Press M to insert a Standard Module
6. Paste the code by pressing the keys CTRL+V
7. Make any custom changes to the macro if needed at this time.
8. Save the Macro by pressing the keys CTRL+S
9. Press the keys ALT+Q to exit the Editor, and return to Excel.

To Run the Macro...
To run the macro from Excel, open the workbook, and press ALT+F8 to display the Run Macro Dialog. Double Click the macro's name to Run it.

**RDMRDM** · 07-29-2009, 05:20 PM

I don't want to remove them. I just want to identify them. I have 2 fields, a Ticket field and a Amount field. I was to look in these to columns and see if there is more than 1 ticket with same value. Thanks.

**modytrane** · 07-29-2009, 05:34 PM

Here's a Formula version of identifying Duplicates.
In the attached example, column A has the formula to indicate if the corresponding entry in column E has duplicate(s) in that column. If there is a duplicate [or more than one duplicates] the result in column A will be 1 for all of those entries. I also have a conditional formuls for entries in column E, so all the duplicates will be colored red for easy identification.
I have used this on one of my programs that had over 1000 entries.
Hope it helps.
modytrane