How to quickly find partial duplicates in an Excel column？

doc find patial duplicate 1
Supposing there is a list of IP addresses in your sheet, and some of addresses are duplicate in first three numbers, here the job is to find the duplicates IP addresses which are only different in the last number as below screenshot shown. How can you quickly find these partial duplicates without comparing one by one in Excel?

Find partial duplicates with formulas

Find partial duplicates with Kutools for Excel good idea3

arrow blue right bubble Find partial duplicates with formulas

To find partial duplicates from a column, you can do as below:

1. Select a blank cell next to the IP, B2 for instance, and enter this formula =LEFT(A2,9), drag auto fill handle down to apply this formula to the cells you need. See screenshot:
doc find patial duplicate 2

2. Then go to next cell beside the formula1, C2 for instance, enter this formula =COUNTIF(B:B,B2), and drag fill handle over the cells you want. Then the result 2 (or other number bigger than 1) indicates the relative IP address are duplicates, 1 indicates unique. See screenshot:
doc find patial duplicate 3

Tip: in above formulas, A2 is the first IP address, and 9 is the first 9 characters you want to compare, you can change as you want.

arrow blue right bubble Find partial duplicates with Kutools for Excel

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If you have Kutools for Excel, you can combine its Split Cells and Select Duplicate & Unique Cells utilities.

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

1. Select the IP addresses and click Kutools > Merge & Split > Split Cells. See screenshot:
doc find patial duplicate 4

2. In the Split Cells dialog, check Split to Columns option in Type section, and check Specify width option and enter 9 into the next textbox. See screenshot:
doc kutools split cells 2

Tip: 9 indicates to split cells by every 9 characters.

3. Click Ok, and a dialog pops out to remind you select a cell to place the split value, here select H2 for instance. See screenshot:
doc kutools split cells 3

4. Then the IP addresses have been split to two parts, one part includes first 9 character, the other includes last two characters.
doc kutools split cells 4

5. And select the list of first part with includes first 9 characters, and click Kutools > Select > Select Duplicate & Unique Cells. See screenshot:
doc kutools select duplicate unique cells 1

6. And in the Select Duplicate & Unique Cells dialog, check All duplicates (Including 1st one) option, and you also can format a different background or font color for the duplicates. See screenshot:
doc kutools select duplicate unique cells 2

7. Click Ok, a dialog pops out to tell you the number of duplicates. Now the duplicate IP addresses have been selected and format with colors. See screenshot:
doc kutools select duplicate unique cells 3

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  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Gopal · 10 months ago
    very nice information, helpful to identify the partial duplicates
  • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
    Robert · 3 years ago
    The information you provide is awesome. You often rank in the top 3 results on Google for the solutions I'm trying to find. Using your site drives me nuts though because I can't tell what is ads for your product and what is part of the solution. It drives me so nuts that I often leave your site to find the solution somewhere less frustrating. There's nothing separating the ads from the article and everything is the same font.
    • To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
      Sunny · 3 years ago
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