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How to Find and Remove Duplicate Values in Excel

Follow these steps in order to find and remove duplicate rows.

  1. Select the data range to check for duplicates

    Select the whole table you want to check, including the header row.

  2. Click "Data" then "Remove Duplicates"

    On the "Data" tab, click "Remove Duplicates."

  3. Choose which columns to check

    Use the checkboxes to pick which columns should be used to decide what counts as a duplicate.

  4. Confirm and check the result

    Click "OK" and a dialog reports how many duplicate values were removed and how many unique values remain.

  5. Preview with conditional formatting before deleting

    If you are worried about accidentally deleting needed data, it is safer to first highlight duplicates with conditional formatting to double-check before removing anything.

When the same entry got entered more than once

Signup lists or rosters filled in by multiple people often end up with the same entry repeated. Remove Duplicates makes it easy to keep only the unique values.

Preview duplicates with conditional formatting first

Highlighting duplicate values with conditional formatting before running Remove Duplicates lets you visually confirm exactly what will be affected, which is worth doing on any list you cannot easily recreate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I recover data after removing duplicates?

Right after running it, Ctrl+Z (undo) can restore the data, but once the file is saved and closed, recovery becomes difficult β€” back up important data beforehand.

Can duplicates be judged based on only some columns?

Yes. In the "Remove Duplicates" dialog, check only the columns you want to use, and only rows matching on those specific columns will be treated as duplicates.