Pivot Table is not recognizing same text entries

[davidbrugge]

I have an issue with my pivot table because it is not recognizing all same text entries as being the same. As a result my pivot table shows duplicate data for the same entry.

I can find lots of threads about this issue when the data is a date or number but I cannot find any information for this issue when the entry is a text value.

I have used "=ISTEXT()" to confirm if the value in the sheet with the data is in fact a TEXT value and all values are returned as true.

I have checked the data to see if there are any typos or additional spaces and I cannot see any issues here.

Any ideas why the pivot is not recognizing the data correctly?

 

[Webbarr]

Hi David,

Sorry if this sounds a little daft but have you tried doing a =TRIM() function on the dataset where your names? Try a TRIM() on each row in your range, then pasting the result as values over your existing column of data.

 

[Cindy Ellis]

I had a similar problem once, and it turned out that the space character was a normal space in one string, and a non-breaking space in the other. I figured out the offending character by using the mid() function to compare the 2 strings 1 character at a time.
Hope that helps,