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How to assign serial number to duplicate or unique values in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

If you have a list of values which contains some duplicates, is it possible for us to assign sequential number to the duplicate or unique values? It means giving a sequential order for the duplicate values or unique values as following screenshot shown. This article, I will talk about some simple formulas to help you solving this task in Excel.

assign duplicates unique

Assign serial number to duplicate values with Formula

Assign serial number to unique value with Formula

arrow blue right bubble Assign serial number to duplicate values with Formula

To order the duplicate values, please apply the following formula:

Enter this formula: =COUNTIF($A$2:A2,A2) into a blank cell beside your data, and then drag the fill handle down to the cells which you want to apply this formula, and the cell values have been assigned based on the duplicate values, see screenshot:

apply a formula to assign duplicates

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arrow blue right bubble Assign serial number to unique value with Formula

To assign serial number to unique value, the below formula may do you a favor:

Enter this formula: =IF(COUNTIF(A$2:A2,A2)=1,MAX(B$1:B1)+1,VLOOKUP(A2,A$1:B1,2,0)) into a blank cell beside your data, and then drag the fill handle down to the cells that you want to apply this formula, and the unique values have been ordered as following screenshot shown:

apply a formula to assign unique values

Notes:

1. In the above formula, A2 is the cell contain the value you want to assign, B1 is the above cell where your formula located.

2. These formulas also can applied to the values in sorted list, and you will get the following result as you want:

the formulas also can applied to the values in sorted list

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