Filtering duplicate entries

[Debi]

I have imported information into a worksheet. It contains
5 columns. I would like a way to filter out duplicate
entries using the first 3 columns as the comparison. The
database contains over 10000 entries with a large number
of duplicates.

Thanks for your help.

Debi

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

You could extract the unique entries with an Advanced Filter, if you can
add a temporary column to the table.

Add a column to the table, in which you combine the values in the first
three columns. In the first data row of the new column (row 2 in this
example), enter a formula to combine the data in columns A, B and C:

=A2&"--"&B2&"--"&C2

Create a criteria area, with a blank heading cell, and the following
formula in the cell below:

=COUNTIF(K:K,K2)=1
where K is the column that contains the formula to combine cell values.

Apply an Advance Filter, and copy the results to a new location. There
are instructions here:

http://www.contextures.com/xladvfilter01.html