extract unique values matching a text string

balaram51 

If by Power Query some simple coding is required, not everything could be done from user interface. For such sample (I sorted names alphabetically)

the generated script is

let
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook()
        {[Name="Table1"]}[Content],
    NamesToLists = Table.TransformColumns(
        Source,
        {{"Persons required", Splitter.SplitTextByDelimiter(",")}}
    ),
    ExpandNames = Table.ExpandListColumn(
        NamesToLists,
        "Persons required"
    ),
    TrimmNames = Table.TransformColumns(
        ExpandNames,
        {{"Persons required", Text.Trim, type text}}
    ),
    FormatAsDate = Table.TransformColumnTypes(
        TrimmNames,
        {{"Date", type date}}
    ),
    GroupNames = Table.Group(
        FormatAsDate,
        {"Persons required"},
        {{"Count", each _, type table [Date=date, Persons required=text]}}
    ),
    AddCustom = Table.AddColumn(
        GroupNames,
        "Custom", each [Count][Date]
    ),
    SortByNames = Table.Sort(
        AddCustom,
        {{"Persons required", Order.Ascending}}
    ),
    CreateTable = Table.FromColumns(
        SortByNames[Custom],
        SortByNames[Persons required]
    )
in
    CreateTable

You may check step by step in the attached file.