Highlight duplicate records
This blog post shows you how to easily identify duplicate rows or records in a list.
Conditional formatting formula:
How to create a conditional formatting formula
- Select cells A1:C30
- Click "Home" tab
- Click "Conditional Formatting" button
- Click "New Rule.."
- Click "Use a formula to determine which cells to format"
- 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.
- Click "Format.." button
- Click "Fill" tab
- Select a color for highlighting cells.
- Click "Ok"
- Click "Ok"
- Click "Ok"
How the conditional formatting formula works
Step 1 - Count rows which 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 next row.
If there are rows that match all three conditions $B3, $C3 and $D3 the COUNTIFS function return the number of rows that match.
COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$15, $B3, $C$3:$C$15, $C3, $D$3:$D$15, $D3)
returns 1 because the first row is counted as well.
Step 2 - Check if number is larger than 1
If there are more than one row matching we know the record is a duplicate.
COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$15, $B3, $C$3:$C$15, $C3, $D$3:$D$15, $D3)>1
becomes
1>1
and returns FALSE. Cell B3 is not highlighted.
Do not highlight the first duplicate
The following CF formula highlights duplicates except the first instance, see image above.
Recommended blog post
Automatically filter unique distinct row records
Download Excel file
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For those wanting to know how to do this in versions of Excel prior to XL2007, here is the Conditional Formatting formula to use. Select the cells in Columns A, B and C from Row 1 down to the last row you want to conditionally format and use this Conditional Formatting formula...
.
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=SUMPRODUCT(--($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