A more userfriendly version of: Automatically filter unique row records from multiple columns
In this article I will try to automatically filter unique row records from multiple columns, without using arrays. To do that, I need to use "helper" columns.
Here are previous articles on this subject:
Automatically filter unique row records from multiple columns
Lookup Unique based on Multiple Conditions
How to count unique combined column values
Here is the table that I will extract unique records from:

First I concatenate A2:D25 with this formula in cells A28:A51
=A2&B2&C2&D2 in cell A28 and copied down to row A51.
In next column i use =MATCH(A28;$A$28:$A$51;0) in cells B28:A51
In cell C28 to C51: =IF(B28>=ROW()-27;INDEX($A$2:$D$25;ROW()-27;1);"")
D28 to D51: =IF(B28>=ROW()-27;INDEX($A$2:$D$25;ROW()-27;2);"")
E28 to E51: =IF(B28>=ROW()-27;INDEX($A$2:$D$25;ROW()-27;3);"")
F28 to F51: =IF(B28>=ROW()-27;INDEX($A$2:$D$25;ROW()-27;4);"")
The IF() function in the above formulas, checks if the current row number is smaller or equal to column B. That will create a list of unique cell content. The downside is that the list will have blanks where a duplicate is.
See this article on how to remove blank cells: Remove blank cells
Here is a picture of the helper columns and the unique list:
Download excel sample file for this tutorial.
userfriendly-automatically-filter-unique-row-records-from-multiple-columns
(Excel 97-2003 Workbook *.xls)
Excel functions in this article:
IF(logical_test;[value_if:true];[value_if_false])
Checks whether a condition is met, and returns one value if TRUE, and another value if FALSE
INDEX(array,row_num,[column_num])
Returns a value or reference of the cell at the intersection of a particular row and column, in a given range
ROW(reference) returns the rownumber of a reference
MATCH(lookup_value;lookup_array; [match_type])
Returns the relative position of an item in an array that matches a specified value
Related posts:
- Unique distinct values from multiple columns using array formula
- Lookup two index columns returning multiple matches in excel
- Filter common values from three columns in excel
- How to filter values between 0.5 and 1.5 from two columns in excel 2007
- Count unique records by date in excel
- Categorize values into multiple columns (excel formulas)
- Filter unique distinct values from two ranges combined in excel 2007
- Find records using two numerical criteria in excel
- Find missing numbers in a range from multiple columns
- Count date records between two dates in a range in excel



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