Author: Oscar Cronquist Article last updated on January 31, 2019

This blog post describes how to filter unique distinct records that meet a given condition in an Excel defined Table. This article shows you how to do it using an array formula: Filter unique distinct records with a condition

The difference with today's blog post is that you also can add more filters to your Excel Table, making the Excel Table a lot more useful and powerful.

Formula in cell E3:

=COUNTIFS($B$3:B3,B3,$C$3:C3,C3,$D$3:D3,D3)

Explaining formula in cell E3

The COUNTIFS function was introduced in Excel 2007 and it calculates the number of cells across multiple ranges that equals all given conditions.

The criteria_range1 and criteria1 is one pair, there must be as many pairs as there are columns in your data set.

COUNTIFS(criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2]…)

Pair criteria_range criteria Text
1 $B$3:B3 B3 Is value in cell B3 found in cell range $B$3:B3?
2 $C$3:C3 C3 Is value in cell C3 found in cell range $C$3:C3?
3 $D$3:D3 D3 Is value in cell D3 found in cell range $D$3:D3?
Note, all references in the criteria_ranges grow when the cell is copied to cells below. Example, $B$3:B3 contains an absolute part $B$3 indicated by the $ (dollar) signs and a relative part B3 that changes in cells below.

Step 1 - The first argument pair

$B$3:B3 returns 40475 and B3 returns 40475.

The value in cell B3 is found once in cell range $B$3:B3.

Step 2 - The second argument pair

$C$3:C3 returns "AA" and C3 returns "AA".

The value in cell C3 is found once in cell range $C$3:C3.

Step 3 - The third argument pair

$D$3:D3 returns 1 and D3 returns 1.

The value in cell D3 is found once in cell range $D$3:D3.

Step 4 - All arguments

The COUNTIFS function returns 1 because all argument pairs return 1 meaning this record in row 3 is a unique distinct record, however, there might be duplicate records further down the list.

COUNTIFS($B$3:B3,B3,$C$3:C3,C3,$D$3:D3,D3)

becomes

COUNTIFS(40475,40475,"AA","AA",1,1)

and returns 1.

The image above shows that row 16, 17 and 19 contain duplicate records.

What are unique distinct rows/records?

Unique distinct rows are all rows but duplicate records are merged into one distinct record, see example in the picture below.

Get the Excel file


Excel-table-Filter-unique-distinct-records-with-criteria.xlsx

Weekly Blog EMAIL

[newsletter_signup_form id=1]
Welcome! I am Oscar and here to help you out.

Feel free to comment and ask Excel questions.

Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so you don't miss new blog articles.

Related articles

How to use the AMORLINC function

The AMORLINC function calculates the depreciation for each accounting period. This function is designed for the French accounting system. Formula […]

How to search for a string in a column

Question: How do i create a flexible search formula to search a list? Answer: The following formula let´s you search […]

Filter unique distinct records

Table of contents Filter unique distinct row records Filter unique distinct row records but not blanks Filter unique distinct row […]

Compare tables: Filter records occurring only in one table

In this example we are going to use two lists with identical columns, shown in the image above. It is […]

Filter unique distinct records with a condition

Sean asks: If Tea and Coffee has Americano,it will only return Americano once and not twice. I am looking for a […]

Vlookup – Return multiple unique distinct values

Ahmed Ali asks: How to return multiple values using vlookup in excel and removing duplicates? I have tried the formula […]