check for duplicate names in spreadsheet

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a rather large spreadsheet with thousands of names and personal
details (numeric). Can somebody please show me how I can check for duplicate
members names, and can I apply the same formula for duplicate personal
details? I have a separate column for first name and surname.

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I would insert a new column to join the two names into one field.

=a2&"|"&b2
(The | is just a separator)

Then I'd use some of the techniques at Chip Pearson's to find duplicates for
this column.
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/duplicat.htm

After finding the duplicates, I think knowing which formulas to apply would
either boil down to consistency or some sort of manual effort. (I don't have a
guess.)

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much for your help Dave, it was exactly what I was looking for.

Very grateful

Lunagirl