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EPond2130's avatar
EPond2130
Copper Contributor
Oct 24, 2023

Identify duplicate names in a database list.

Hi All! I need to omit duplicate names in a database. I see that I could use the unique function but am not sure how to apply it to the list. This is probably Excel for Beginners, but I canʻt figure ...
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Formulas and Functions
PeterBartholomew1's avatar
PeterBartholomew1
Silver Contributor
Oct 24, 2023

EPond2130 

A formula that amused me is

= LET(
    distinct,   UNIQUE(list),
    unique,     UNIQUE(list,,TRUE),
    stacked,    VSTACK(distinct, unique),
    duplicates, UNIQUE(stacked,,TRUE),
    duplicates
  )

The variable 'distinct' holds a single copy of each record whereas 'unique' contains only the non-duplicates.  Stacking them produces a list in which the original unique records now appear twice.

 

Hence 'duplicates' is a lists of records that were duplicated in the original list.

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