To delete duplicates in Excel, follow these steps:
- Select the range of cells or the entire column(s) where you want to remove duplicates.
- Go to the "Data" tab on the Excel ribbon.
- Click the "Remove Duplicates" button in the "Data Tools" group. This opens a dialog box.
- In the dialog box, select the columns where duplicates should be checked. You can select one or multiple columns.
- Click "OK" to remove the duplicates. Excel will delete the duplicate entries, leaving only unique values.
There is also a shortcut key for this: press Alt + A + M to open the Remove Duplicates dialog box quickly. Tips:
- If your data has headers, make sure to check the "My data has headers" option.
- Always consider making a backup of your data before removing duplicates as this action cannot be undone easily.
- You can also use Conditional Formatting to highlight duplicates before removal if you want to review them first.
This method works for both single-column and multi-column data ranges.
