If you have a worksheet with a lot of data and you want to ensure your data integrity, you need to make certain that there are no duplicates in your data. Trying to find and remove duplicates in your worksheet can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Fortunately the Remove Duplicates dialog box makes it easy and quick for you, and it’s even quicker when you use keyboard shortcuts.
Note: Download the workbook to practice this exercise
Applies To: Microsoft® Excel® 2007, 2010 and 2013
1. Open the demonstration workbook. Note that there are four rows highlighted: the yellow row is the original data row, and the three blue rows are duplicates of that row.
2. Press ‘ALT’ + ‘A’, ‘M’. This will launch the ‘Remove Duplicates’ dialogue box.
To determine which rows have duplicate data, Excel searches data in columns. And, by default, the Remove Duplicates dialogue box opens with all column headings checked/ticked. In this case, since we want to remove rows that have the exact same data, we will leave all column headings checked.
- Press ‘ENTER’ to remove the duplicate rows.
