How to color duplicate values or duplicate rows in Excel?

Supposing you have a list of data with some repeated data in a worksheet, and you want to add a different color to distinguish the duplicate values, how can you quickly color them at once instead of coloring them one by one? Here I introduce the Conditional Formatting feature and another handy tool to help you quickly color the duplicate values in Excel.

Color duplicate values or rows with Conditional Formatting

Color duplicate values or rows with Kutools for Excel

Color duplicate values or rows with Conditional Formatting

In Excel, you can use the Conditional Formatting feature to color the duplicate values or rows.

Color the duplicate values

1. Select the data range you want to color the duplicate values, then click Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values. See screenshot:

2. Then in the popping dialog, you can select the color you need to highlight duplicates from the drop down list of values with. See screenshot:

3. Click OK. Now the duplicate values (including first duplicate) are colored.

Color duplicate rows in the selected range

If you want to color the duplicate rows based on a column in a range, you can do as these:

1. Select the data range and click Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. See screenshot:

2. Then in the New Formatting Rule dialog, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format in the Select a Rule Type: section, then type this formula =COUNTIF($D$2:$D$10,$D2)>1 to the text box under Format values where this formula is true. See screenshot:

Tip: In the above formula, D2:D10 is the column range you find duplicates from, and D2 is the first cell of the column range, you can change them as you need.

3. Click Format to go to Format Cells dialog, and under Fill tab, select a color you need to distinguish the duplicates. See screenshot:

4. Click OK > OK to close dialogs. Now the duplicate rows (including first duplicate row) are colored.

With this method, you need to remember the formula if you want to color duplicate rows which is not easy enough. If you want to quickly and correctly color the duplicate values or rows (excluding or including first duplicates), you can go to use next method.

Color duplicate values or rows with Kutools for Excel

If you have installed Kutools for Excel, you can select and color duplicate values or rows with Select Duplicate & Unique Cells utility quickly.

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Select the list and click Kutools > Select > Select Duplicate & Unique Cells. See screenshot:

2. Then in the Select Duplicate & Unique Cells dialog, check Duplicates (Except 1st one) option or All duplicates (Including 1st one) option as you need, and then check Fill backcolor option, and select the color you need from below drop down list. See screenshot:

3. Click Ok, and a dialog pops out to remind you how many cells are selected, just click OK to close it. See screenshot:

Now the duplicates are selected and colored.

Note:

If you want to color the duplicate rows, you just need to select the column data and apply Select Duplicate & Unique Cells, and check the options you need, and remember to check Select entire rows. See screenshots:

Click here to know more about Select Duplicate & Unique Cells.