Validating for unique values??

Posted by Tom Urtis on February 23, 2001 2:38 AM

In Excel 97 I am entering Personnel data for my company's 1000 or so employees. I am entering the employee's unique five-digit ID # in column G. I would like to alert myself if I mistakenly type in the wrong ID number and hence duplicate what is supposed to be a unique entry in that column. Aside from sorting the list by ID # and manually checking for dupes, is there a formula or code possible to alert if a duplicate entry is made?? Thanks for any guidance.

Tom

Posted by Dave Hawley on February 23, 2001 4:45 AM

Hi Tom

If you go to my web site (OzGrid Business Applications) and click the link "Handy Hints" you will see exactly what you are after. Any question let me know.

DaveOzGrid Business Applications

Posted by Aladin Akyurek on February 23, 2001 9:09 AM

In case you didn't make make the trip to Dave's:

Select G2:G200, activate Data,Validation. Choose Custom for Allow on the Settings tab. Enter =ISNA(VLOOKUP(G2,$G$1:$G1,1,0))

Type "Duplicate entry." on the Alert tab.

Aladin

Posted by Tom Urtis on February 23, 2001 10:12 PM

Thank you Mr Hawley & Mr. Akyurek !!

Thank you for your solutions; they both worked great and I appreciate your informative responses!! PS David, I enjoyed reading all the tips on your web site...well done !!

Tom Urtis