Duplicate Disaster

[Guest]

I have a huge table in excel, about 1500 addresses. The problem is some of
them are duplicates. The bigger problem is that if they are duplicates there
is a slight difference in their name. for example 123 designer might be 123
desginer co. but with the same phone number etc. So the phone number is the
only piece of data that would be the same for a duplicate. Is there a way to
have excel find all the duplicates in the column with phone numbers then
delete one of the duplicate rows?
i've tried that website with the duplicate tutorials doesn't work.

 

[Bob Phillips]

Difficult is which to delete.

I would use conditional formatting to identify the duplicates and then you
can decide which to delete.

Assume the phone number is in column C, select all the rows in column C and
use conditional formatting with a formula of

=COUNTIF(C:C,C1)>1

 

[Guest]

try a helper column next to the telephone number
with
=if(countif($B$1:B1,B1)>1,"Duplicate","")
and copy down to the bottom of your list
Select the helper column and using <Data><Filter><Autofilter> Select the
"Duplicate"s and delete the rows.

Since will delete the entries after the first occurance, If you think the
first occurance may be wrong you could instead use
=if(countif($B$1:$B$1,$B$2000)>1,"Duplicate","")
This time select both the Tel number column and the helper column before
applying the filter
After selecting duplicate for the helper column
select the fist
select each number in the telephone number column and look at the different
entries.
delete the rows you do not want to keep
reselect all in the telephone number column and reselect Duplicate in the
helper column. repeat this for each telephone number with a Duplicate by it.

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I have a huge table in excel, about 1500 addresses. The problem is some of
them are duplicates. The bigger problem is that if they are duplicates there
is a slight difference in their name. for example 123 designer might be 123
desginer co. but with the same phone number etc. So the phone number is the
only piece of data that would be the same for a duplicate. Is there a way to
have excel find all the duplicates in the column with phone numbers then
delete one of the duplicate rows?
i've tried that website with the duplicate tutorials doesn't work.

I assume your columns of data have Labels at the top.

You can use the Advanced Filter to do this.

1. Assumption -- your phone numbers are in column B and start in the second
row.

2. In some cell, not in Row 1, enter the formula: =COUNTIF($B$2:B2,B2)=1 Be
sure there is a blank cell above this.
3. Select some cell in your data table.
4. Data/Filter/Advanced Filter
5. Action: Either is OK but for safety's sake would "Copy to another
location.
List Range: Your table should be selected.
Criteria Range: Select the cell entered in step 2 *AND* the blank cell
above it.

<OK>


--ron