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How to quickly create unique list (remove duplicates) from a given column in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

Suppose you have a list of names with duplicates, and now you want to create a new list of unique names from this given column, how could you solve it in Excel? Now this tutorial introduces some tricks that can help you quickly create a unique list from a given column.

Create unique list from column with Advanced Filter

Create unique list from column with VBA

Quickly create unique list from column with Kutools for Excel good idea3


arrow blue right bubble Create unique list from column with Advanced Filter

In Excel, you can apply the Advanced Filter function to filter out the unique data from a list.

1. Click Data > Advanced. See screenshot:

A screenshot of the Data tab in Excel, showing the Advanced Filter option

2. In the Advanced Filter dialog, do as below:

(1) Check Copy to another location option and Unique records only option;

(2) Select the duplicates column to List range text box, and select a cell to put the unique list to Copy to text box.

A screenshot of the Advanced Filter dialog

3. Click OK. Now the unique list has been created. See screenshot:

A screenshot of the unique list created in Excel after applying the Advanced Filter


arrow blue right bubble Create unique list from column with VBA

In Excel, you also can use VBA code to create a unique list from a given column.

1. Press Alt + F11 to show Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, and click Insert > Module, then copy and paste below VBA to the new Module window.

VBA: Create unique list from given column.

Sub CreateUniqueList()
'Updateby20150519
Dim Rng As Range
Dim InputRng As Range, OutRng As Range
xTitleId = "KutoolsforExcel"
Set InputRng = Application.Selection
Set InputRng = Application.InputBox("Range :", xTitleId, InputRng.Address, Type:=8)
Set OutRng = Application.InputBox("Out put to (single cell):", xTitleId, Type:=8)
Set OutRng = OutRng.Range("A1")
InputRng.AdvancedFilter Action:=xlFilterCopy, CopyToRange:=OutRng, Unique:=True
End Sub

2. Press F5 key or Run button to enable the VBA code, and in the popping dialog, select the list with duplicates and click OK, then select a cell to put the result. See screenshots:

A screenshot showing the dialog where a user selects the range of data   >>>   A screenshot showing the dialog where a user selects the output cell to create a unique list

3. Now, a list with unique names has been created.


arrow blue right bubble Quickly create unique list from column with Kutools for Excel

Actually, with Select Duplicate & Unique Cells feature of Kutools for Excel, you also can quickly create a unique list from a given column.

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1. Select the list (It’s optional to select the column header) you want to create unique list based on, and click Kutools > Select > Select Duplicate & Unique Cells. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing the 'Select Duplicate & Unique Cells' option in the Kutools tab in Excel

2. In the popping dialog, check All unique (Including 1st duplicates) option under Rule section. See screenshot:

A screenshot of the Select Duplicate & Unique Cells dialog

3. Click Ok, and then a dialog pops out to remind you the number of selected cells. See screenshot:

A screenshot of the dialog reminding the number of selected cells after selecting unique values

4. Click OK, then press Ctrl + C to copy the selected cells and select a cell and press Ctrl + V keys to put the result.

A screenshot of the copied unique list being pasted into a new location in Excel

Tip: If you want to select values case sensitively, you can check Case sensitive option in the Select Duplicate & Unique Cells dialog.

With Select Duplicate & Unique Cells feature, you can only select duplicates including first one, select only duplicates except first one, and select all unique values except first one.

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