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Using CountIf for duplicates

Hi Folks
Just wanted to check if I'm on track with this solution. I have a file with 6 columns and I'm not sure if I have duplicates or not. My workaround has been to create a new field, which concatenates all the elements of each transaction and then uses conditional formatting to flag those which are duplicates. It seems to work :-) but should I also use a Count if with this to check and if so, how would I structure it?
Thanks

SOLUTION

p_nuts

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regmigrant

this approach will work as long as you consider a duplicate to be when all columns are identical and in the same order.

to use countif to count the number of times a particiular value repeats in column A (for example) is to put the following in column B and copy down:-

=Countif($a$1:$a1, $a1)

Not the 'missing' dollar sign on the second part of the range.

If you have sorted column A you will find that column b now has a 1 for non-identical (first match) and then 2,3,4 etc for subsequent matches.

Hope this helps

Reg

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Rob Henson

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agwalsh

ASKER

@RobHenson - will try that. Yes, I'm using the Show duplicates option :-) Thank you!
A

ukerandi

Please check the attachment for your query
The ID Filed Enter your suspicious duplicate data, then Click on Run then you can find how many records are duplicates, for example more than 2 time all are duplicates
Run.xls

agwalsh

ASKER

Thank you all very much!