Duplicate data is something that you will be dealing with over and over again. If it has not become a habit to check for duplicates, then start getting used to it. Excel has useful tools to help you identify and remove duplicate data.
Fire up Excel 2013 and create a new spreadsheet. In cell A1, enter the following information:
ColorblueblueredgreenYou will now have a spreadsheet that looks like the following screenshot:
Figure 3.23
Our goal is to remove any duplicates in our data using Excel's built-in functionality. I know that this is a very simple example but remember that the same steps can be applied to large amounts of data as well.
Highlight cells A1 through A5, select the DATA tab, and click on the Remove Duplicates button.
Figure 3.24
When the Remove Duplicates dialog box appears, click on the OK button, as shown in the following screenshot:
Figure 3.25
Excel will then remove any duplicates that it finds and column A will look like this:
Figure 3.26
You will also get a...