From time to time, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to find duplicates in Numbers. For instance, you have a list of fruits in one column and the number of each of them in the other, but there are multiples of some of the fruits. It can be tedious to comb through the list manually, especially if it’s long. Fortunately, there is a way to get this done automatically or semi-automatically to find and eliminate duplicates more easily.
To get started, sort the list by the column that contains the fruits. This will make it easier to spot the duplicates. Once you have done this, you can use a simple function to identify the duplicates. For instance, if the value in A3 is the same as A2, then A3 is a duplicate. However, it doesn’t make sense to do this in the first cell because there is nothing above it to compare it to. So, start in the second row, say row three, and begin a formula with “if this equals this.” Copy and paste this formula throughout the list, and you will see “true” in cells with duplicates and “false” in cells without.
If you want to make it easier to see where the duplicates are, you can modify the formula to say “duplicate” with an exclamation point if it is true and leave it blank if it is false. This way, you can easily see all the duplicate rows and eliminate them.
But what if you don’t just want to eliminate the extra rows, you want to merge them? For example, you want to have the total count of all the apples (202+19+121). You can do this manually every time you see the word “duplicate,” or you can use a formula to do it automatically.
To do this, add another column and put a formula in it that will be the total. Start with “equals” and then use the count followed by “plus” and an if statement that checks if the value in the first column is equal to the value of the second column. This will give you the total count of the duplicates.
With these simple tips, you can easily remove duplicates in Numbers and save yourself time and effort.