How to Consolidate Duplicates in Excel
By Casey Anderson
Many businesses use Microsoft Excel to work with numbers, records and data. Oftentimes, an Excel spreadsheet contains duplicate information you may wish to consolidate. When working with smaller files, it is easy to locate and remove duplicates. If your business deals with thousands of records, however, it can be difficult and time-consuming to find duplicates manually. Luckily, Excel contains a tool that allows you to consolidate duplicates easily and automatically.
Open the Excel workbook you want to edit. Ensure that you are on the correct worksheet if your workbook contains multiple tabs.
Click the "Data" tab on the top menu bar (Ribbon) of the spreadsheet. Click the "Remove Duplicates" button located in the Data Tools section.
Click to place a checkmark in the "My data has headers" box if you prefer to look at the columns by names rather than letters. Place a checkmark by each column you'd like Excel to check for duplicates.
Click "OK." Excel will show you how many duplicate values were removed and how many unique values remain.
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Writer Bio
Casey Anderson is a part-time writer and full-time marketer who has been published on websites such as Opposing Views and Salon. She has also contributed articles to local Detroit Magazines, Strut and Orbit. A Wayne State University Master of Business Administration graduate, Nation began her writing career in 2001 and has extensive experience in business and research writing.