Is MATCH right for me – or should I use something else?

[Philip Jen]

I’m trying to indicate whether CELL content already exists in a COLUMN.

(Ameded for clarity) The Data is in Two columns. The "A" Column is a Custom Date in the form of dd/mm/yy hh:mm. and "B" Column is a name.

The Date/time in Column 'A' can be the same for a several entries,

and the name can appear many times in column 'B' HOWEVER I need to indicate if the data combination is duplicated, ie the same date/time with the same name.

Great suggestion from 

Detlef Lewin but unfortunately, I didn't make it clear that I was trying to test the data on two columns, each of which contains may instances of the same data, but I want to indicate duplicates when both match an existing entry. Sorry for the confusion but this is my first question here...  (end of amendment)

In Excel 2011 for Mac or Excel 2010 for Windows, I am using MATCH function to determine whether a new entry (pair) is already present in an *existing pair of columns*. If it is present, MATCH returns a number, but as documented, if it is not present MATCH returns an #N/A error.

I can’t seem to eliminate the #N/A which EXCEL treats as an error

Is there a function or formula which will not return #N/A?

Sorry about amendments but I'm learning.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Philip,

use COUNTIF().

If the result is >=1 then the value already exists in the column. Otherwise it is 0.

[#3]

Great answer but straight away I realise I hadn't explained the problem correctly ... I'm working on two columns, the first is a time and date, the second is data. Both columns have to match ... I've updated the question. Best wishes.

[#4]

Philip,

for multiple criteria use COUNTIFS().