Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Excel Formula - Exclude Duplicate Info

Jul 7, 2005 8:33AM PDT

I am downloading customer information from a web-based data management site to Excel.

The task is to then upload all the customer email addresses from Excel to Outlook for a general mailing.

The problem is that if there are multiple customers from the same family/entity utilizing the same email address, that many emails will be sent.

Can I ask Excel to eliminate all duplicate email addresses through a formula?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Yes, but
Jul 7, 2005 8:51AM PDT

I'm not at all sure that Excel is the right application to do database searches like this. It can, but compared to a specific database application like Access, it is very cumbersome.

I know nothing about database applications though.

I will consider this problem and see how I would do it in Excel and report back. In the meantime, perhaps other people here will have some ideas.

Mark

- Collapse -
Thanks!
Jul 7, 2005 11:34PM PDT

I agree that Excel is not the best tool for the task.
Hopefully, someone can come up with a solution so that I can change the minds of the masses!

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Renee

- Collapse -
Yay.....well kinda.....
Aug 26, 2006 12:44PM PDT

Thanks for the help guys! I'm trying to flag duplicate records as I enter them. Looks like I'm heading from Excel to Access. I guess it will pay to get a better handle on Access sooner rather than later, sigh.

- Collapse -
Excluding Duplicate Info in Excel
Jul 8, 2005 12:05AM PDT

Would I be correct in re-phrasing your question as "How can I get a list of non-repeating (unique) values from a column in Excel?"

If the answer is more complicated than that, maybe you could let us know some more information. Otherwise if yes, then may I suggest the following:

1. Ensure that the first row in your spreadsheet contains column labels (e.g. if the email addresses you want are in column A, ensure that A1 is a column label, eg. "Email Address". If not, insert a new row at the top and type labels to identify the columns).

2. Make the first row (column label row) BOLD. (This helps Excel determine which row contains labels.)

3. Highlight the entire column containing the email addresses.

4. From the "Data" menu, select "Filter" and then "Advanced Filter..."

4. In the dialog that appears, tick the checkbox labelled "Unique Records Only" and click 'OK'.

[Microsoft Excel now filters out all the duplicate email addresses.]

5. Copy the resultant column to the Clipboard (Ctrl-C) ready for pasting into Outlook.

Hope this helps
- Richard

- Collapse -
Problem Solved
Jul 8, 2005 3:25AM PDT

Richard, you are a genius. Everyone in our company is now singing your praise!

Thank you very much.
-Renee

- Collapse -
Phew!
Jul 8, 2005 9:07AM PDT

Saved me a job.

Good stuff and I'm glad you got it sorted.

Mark

- Collapse -
Lovely
Jul 10, 2005 6:44AM PDT

Glad to have been of assistance!

Best regards - Richard