Now we are coming to a very useful but rather unknown function: Remove Duplicates. Let’s say, you got a list of names and some names are twice or more often on the list. With Remove Duplicates, you can delete those duplicated names automatically so that each name appears only one time. In this article we’ll learn how to easily remove duplicate values in Excel.

How to remove duplicates

The steps for removing duplicate values in a column (or several columns) are quite easy (the numbers are corresponding to the picture above):

1. Select the list or table that you want to remove the duplicates.
2. Click on “Remove Duplicates” on the Data ribbon. 
3. If the cells next to your selected range are filled with data, Excel might ask you if you would like to extend your range. But if your data range is selected correctly, select “Continue with the current selection” and then “Remove Duplicates”. 
4. If your selected range has a header, pay attention to the check box “My data has headers”. 
5. Click “OK”. Now you will receive a message reporting how many duplicate values have been removed.

Please note that blank cells also count as one possible name. After removing duplicates, one blank cell will still be there, if your data contains at least one blank cell.