Highlight duplicate records
Author: Oscar Cronquist Article last updated on April 19, 2021
This article shows you how to easily identify duplicate rows or records in a list.
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1. Conditional Formatting formula - Excel 2007 and later versions
Conditional formatting formula:
=COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$15, $B3, $C$3:$C$15, $C3, $D$3:$D$15, $D3)>1
2. Conditional Formatting formula - Excel 2003 and previous versions
The COUNTIFS function was introduced in Excel 2007, here is a formula for previous versions:
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF($B3, $B$3:$B3)*COUNTIF($C3, $C$3:$C3)*COUNTIF($D3, $D$3:$D3))>1
3. How to create a conditional formatting formula
- Select the cell range you want to highlight duplicate rows for.
- Go to the "Home" tab on the ribbon.
- Press with left mouse button on the "Conditional Formatting" button. A popup menu appears.
- Press with left mouse button on "New Rule.." on the popup menu.
- Press with left mouse button on "Use a formula to determine which cells to format", see the image below.
- Type =COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$15,$B3,$C$3:$C$15,$C3,$D$3:$D$15,$D3)>1 in "Format values where this formula is TRUE" window.
- Press with left mouse button on "Format.." button
- Press with left mouse button on "Fill" tab
- Select a color for highlighting cells.
- Press with left mouse button on "Ok"
- Press with left mouse button on "Ok"
- Press with left mouse button on "Ok"
4. How the conditional formatting formula works
Step 1 - Count rows that match the current row
The COUNTIFS function allows you to counts duplicate records, make sure you create a condition for each column in your record. There are three columns in this example, the first argument is $B$3:$B$15 and doesn't change when the conditional formatting moves on to the next row.
The second argument is $B3 and is locked to column B, however, the row is a relative cell reference (not locked) and changes when the CF moves to the next row.
If there are rows that match all three conditions $B3, $C3 and $D3 the COUNTIFS function returns the number of rows that match.
COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$15, $B3, $C$3:$C$15, $C3, $D$3:$D$15, $D3)
returns 1 because the first row is counted as well.
Step 2 - Check if the number is larger than 1
If there is more than one row matching we know the record is a duplicate.
COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$15, $B3, $C$3:$C$15, $C3, $D$3:$D$15, $D3)>1
becomes
1>1
and returns FALSE. Cell B3 is not highlighted.
5. Do not highlight the first duplicate
The following CF formula highlights duplicates except the first instance, see image above.
=COUNTIFS($B$3:$B3, $B3, $C$3:$C3, $C3, $D$3:$D3, $D3)>1
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Highlight Cells RulesTop/Bottom RulesConditional Formatting featuresBasic Conditional Formatting formulasConditional Formatting Partial matchHighlight unique distinct values/recordsHighlight duplicatesComparing listsHighlight largest/smallest numberHighlight datesConditional Formatting examples
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For those wanting to know how to do this in versions of Excel prior to XL2007, here is the Conditional Formatting formula to use. Select the cells in Columns A, B and C from Row 1 down to the last row you want to conditionally format and use this Conditional Formatting formula...
.
.
=SUMPRODUCT(--($A$1:$A$30&"X"&$B$1:$B$30&"X"&$C$1:$C$30=$A1&"X"&$B1&"X"&$C1))>1
.
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Those embedded X's just need to be a character that is guaranteed not to be in any of the cells being conditionally formatted. These characters ensure no accidental matches occur during the concatenations; for example, without them, an accidental match could occur like this...
"12"&"3"&"4" = "1"&"23"&"4"
both equating to "1234" meaning the equality check would be true; with the X's in place, you get this...
"12"&"X"&"3"&"X"&"4" = "1"&"X"&"23"&"X"&"4"
with the first equating to "12X3X4" and the second equating to "1X23X4" and the equality check would be false.
Here is another conditional formatting formula, excel 2003:
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF($A1, $A$1:$A$30)*COUNTIF($B1, $B$1:$B$30)*COUNTIF($C1, $C$1:$C$30))>1
this formula is not working for me.....
Deepak,
what does your formula look like?
Remember, you must understand how relative and absolute cell references work.
[...] Here is a post where I use this technique: Highlight duplicate rows [...]
Love you for this formula. Thank you for posting....
Mohasin,
Thank you for commenting!
[…] Here is a post where I use this technique: Highlight duplicate rows […]
Hello, this formula works great, I am wondering if I can change it slightly for what I need.
I have rows of lists, 6 in each row. They are all names. The names will be in different order, but I want to not have duplicates of the same lists. I cannot fully sort them as the first name is unique, and needs to be in that spot. I will give you and example:
John Bill James Ron Joe Mike
Bill John James Joe Ron Mike
James Bill John Joe Mike Ron
All three of these list are the same, but when they are in a different order, this conditional formatting does not show them as duplicates. Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance,
Marsh