How to remove both duplicate rows in Excel?

Sometimes, you may merge two lists from two files into one column of the worksheet, after merging the data, there are some duplicate values are displayed. But, now, you would like to remove both the duplicate records which including the original one, and leave only the unique values that do not have any duplicates at all as following screenshot shown. This article, I will talk about some quick ways for solving this task in Excel.
Remove both duplicate rows in Excel with helper column
In Excel, you can create a formula in a helper column, and then filter by this new column to filter all the duplicate values and delete them at once. Please do with following steps:
1. Enter this formula: =IF(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$14,A1)=1,0,1) into a blank cell besides your data, B1 for example, and then press Enter key.
Note: in the formula, $A$1:$A$14 is the original data range you want to remove the duplicates, and A1 is the first cell in your data range. You can change them to your need.
2. Then select cell B1, and drag the fill handle down to the cells that you want to contain this formula, and you can see all the duplicate cells are displayed as the number 1, and unique cells are displayed as the number 0, see screenshot:
3. And then click Data > Filter, and a drop down list button appears in cell B1, see screenshot:
4. Then click the drop down list button and only check the number 1 under the Select All option, see screenshot:
5. And all the duplicate values are filtered out, see screenshot:
6. (1.)If you want to remove the values, you can just press the Delete key to remove all of them, and only leave the unique values as following screenshot shown:
(2.) If you want to remove the entire duplicate rows, select the visible entire rows, and choose Delete Row from the right clicking menu, and only the unique rows are kept. See screenshots:
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7. After removing the duplicate records, you can delete the contents in column B as you need.
Note: If there is a unique value in your first row, after filtering, it will be locate there as well, when you delete the filtered duplicate values, please skip this row.
Remove both duplicate rows in Excel with Kutools for Excel
Here also is handy tool--Kutools for Excel, with its Select Duplicate & Unique Cells feature, you can finish the following operations quickly and easily:
Remove duplicate rows but keep the first record |
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After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as this:
1. Select the data range that you want to use.
2. Click Kutools > Select > Select Duplicate & Unique Cells, see screenshot:
3. In the Select Duplicate & Unique Cells dialog box, choose All duplicates (Including 1 st one) under the Rule section, then click Ok > OK to close the dialogs, and all the duplicates have been selected at once, you can press Delete key to remove them, see screenshots:
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Note: If you need to remove the whole rows of the duplicate values, please check Select entire rows in the Select Duplicate & Unique cells dialog box, and all the duplicate rows are selected immediately, then click Home > Delete > Delete Sheet Rows, and all the duplicate rows will be removed.
Click to know more about this Select Duplicate & Unique cells feature.
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Demo: Remove both duplicate rows in Excel with Kutools for Excel
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