Finding Duplicates

Posted by Mike P. on February 04, 2002 2:44 PM

I have a column of several hundred one word names. I want to find any duplicate names in the list. Any suggestions?

Posted by Jacob on February 04, 2002 2:46 PM

If you want to find them use conditional formatting.

i.e.

Select A1 and add this conditional format

=If(Countif("$A$1:$A$1000","A1")>1,true,false)
Then add the formal

Then Fill the formatts down all the rows this should highlight all the records with more than one occurance.

HTH

Jacob

Posted by Mike on February 04, 2002 3:20 PM

Thanks Jacob. I'm very much the novice at this. So please bear with me. I tried entering the conditional format that you suggested, but I get an error when I try to enter it. Is there something that I'm missing? Thank you in advance for your help.

Posted by Aladin Akyurek on February 04, 2002 3:49 PM

Jacob had the parts of formula inadvertantly between double quotes.

We can a bit simplify the suggested formula.

Lets say that the data is in A from A2 on.
Select all of the cells of A from A2 on.
Activate Format|Conditional Formatting.
Choose "Formula Is" for condition 1.
Enter as formula in the white box:

=COUNTIF(A:A,A2)>1

Activate Format.
Choose a color on the Patterns tab.
Click OK,OK.

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Posted by Mike P. on February 05, 2002 9:06 AM

Thank you Aladin. It worked perfectly!