Remove duplicates in Excel using a native tool

Editing and deleting data in Excel is kind of an inevitable task. If there is a small amount of data, then most likely there will be no problems with editing or deleting them. If you need to make an impressive amount of changes, then much more effort will be required. And it is quite possible that in doing so you will make many mistakes.

The process of removing duplicates in Excel can be a simple, but rather time-consuming task. Luckily, this tool is easy to use and efficient, so it can really help you manage multiple lines in one go.

Excel offers three tools for dealing with duplicates. One removes them, the second identifies them, and the third allows you to filter. Today I will show you how the duplicate removal tool works as this task is one of the most popular task in Excel.

Requirements: Need to organize data in Excel

In the following kitchenware example, you will see how to remove duplicate lines with little effort. Take a look at my data:

All tableware is organized in columns by date and country of manufacture. As a result, I ended up with 3 duplicates: plates (plates), flasks (jars) and sugar bowls (sugar bowls) that I don’t want to see twice in the table.

To set the correct range, right-click on any cell with data, go to the tab Insertion (Insert) and select Table (Table). It is very important to check the data range that is currently selected. If everything is correct, click OK.

Remove duplicates in Excel using a native tool

Find and remove duplicate entries

To remove duplicates, I click on any cell in the table, go to the tab Data (Data) and select the tool Remove Duplicates (Remove duplicates). The dialog box of the same name opens:

Remove duplicates in Excel using a native tool

This window allows you to select any number of columns to be checked. I select all three because they contain duplicate entries that I need to remove. Then I just click OK.

The dialog box that appears after the end of data processing shows how many duplicates Excel found and removed. Click OK:

Remove duplicates in Excel using a native tool

As a result, no duplicates in the table, everything is fast and easy. The built-in duplicate removal tool in Excel will definitely save you time, especially if you are working with tables that contain thousands of rows with different kinds of data. Try it yourself and you will see how quickly you can achieve the desired result.

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