When you work with a huge amount of data in the Excel program, it is inadvertently very simple to make a mistake and enter the same data again. So there are duplicates. This, of course, increases the volume of all summary information, and in some cases it knocks down formulas that should summarize and calculate various variables. You can manually find duplicates, but why, if there are several ways, how to delete duplicate rows automatically in Excel.
Method 1: standard duplicate removal
The easiest way to delete duplicate rows in Excel is to use the appropriate tool located in the ribbon.
So you need to:
- Holding down the left mouse button, select the required range of cells, within which there will be a search and automatic removal of duplicate rows.
- Go to the "Data" tab.
- Click on the "Delete Duplicates" tool, which is located in the "Work with Data" group.
- In the window that appears, check the box next to "My data contains headers."
- Check the boxes next to the name of the columns in which the search will be performed. Take into account that if all the checkboxes are set, then the duplicate will be the rows that are completely repeated in all columns. Thus, if you want to remove duplicates from one column, then you need to leave only one tick next to its name.
- Click OK.
As soon as you click on the button, the search for duplicates of the selected area will begin, and then their removal. As a result, a window appears in which the report will be demonstrated. Now you know how to delete duplicate rows in Excel, but only the first method, the second in line.
Method 2: use the smart table
Duplicates can be removed in the same way that occurs in this article. This time, in the story, how to delete duplicate rows in Excel, a smart table will be used.
To remove repetitions in Excel, you need to do the following:
- As in the previous method, first select the range of cells where you want to remove duplicates.
- Click the "Format as table" button, which is located on the "Home" tab in the "Styles" tool group.
- Choose the style you like from the drop-down menu (any).
- In the window that appears, you must confirm the previously specified range of cells, and if it does not match, then reassign. Also check the box next to “Table with headings”, if it is, click “OK” in total.
- A smart table has been created, but that's not all. Now you need to select any cell in the table so that the "Designer" item appears in the tabs and go directly to this tab.
- In the toolbar, click the "Delete Duplicates" button.
After that, a window for deleting duplicate rows will appear. It will be similar to what was presented in the first method, so carry out all subsequent steps in accordance with the first instruction.
Conclusion
So we have examined two ways how to delete rows with duplicate values in Excel. As you can see, this is nothing complicated, and using the instructions, you can completely perform this operation in a few seconds. An example was given in the 2016 version of the program, however, duplicate rows can be deleted in Excel 2010 and other versions in exactly the same way.