Searching, finding & deleting fuzzy duplicates and typos in Excel

Fuzzy Duplicate Finder for Microsoft^® Excel^®

Excel Fuzzy Duplicate Finder - find and delete duplicates, similar entries

For Microsoft Excel 2010 32-bit and 64-bit, Excel 2007, Excel 2003.

• Find fuzzy duplicates
• How to work with the results
• Setting the right value to all items of the duplicate group (node).
• Setting the right value to some items of the node.
• Setting different values for separate item(s) of the node.
• How to remove duplicates from the results.
• Exporting the search results.
• Working with case sensitive correction.
• How to cancel the last alteration
• How to start a new search

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Finding fuzzy duplicates

1. Open the Fuzzy Duplicate Finder pane by clicking on its icon
2. Select the search range in your table and you will see the address of the selected range in the Search in field.
   If you want to find fuzzy duplicates in a single column, select this column or any cell in that column.
   To search within several columns or any block of cells, select them.
   
   You can also select a range for search by clicking on the select range icon next to the Search in field.
   
   
3. Set the search options
   • You can choose the maximum number of different characters in the Max number of different characters field. You can set from 1 to 10 characters in which the searched entries will differ. Please mind, that the bigger is the number, the more different values you are likely to get.
   • If you want to exclude cells or words with an unwanted number of characters from the search, use the option Exclude cells/words with fewer than. You can set from 1 to 50 characters. In this case, the words or cells that have fewer characters will not be included into the search results.
   • If your cells can contain more than one word, take advantage of the Split Cell Data into Words option. If you tick it, the add-in will search the words within your cells.
   • You can also select delimiters that separate the words in your cells. "Line break" and "Space" are set by default. You can remove Space from the range of delimiters using the Backspace key.
     
     If you have other delimiters in your data, just enter them in the Delimiters field. Those delimiters that you enter will appear in the drop-down list when you start the next search. You can see the list of previously used delimiters if you click on the arrow next to the Delimiters field.
4. Press the Search for Typos button.
   
5. All found items will be shown in a list grouped by duplicates (nodes).

How to set the right value to all items of the duplicate group (node)

1. Select a node and click on the “+” symbol on the left to see all the found items of the group. To set the correct value to all the items click on the Set Value as Correct button on the line with the correct entry. This value will be automatically assigned to all items of the node. You will see it in the Correct Value column.
2. If the node doesn't contain the right entry, click on the root node, press Enter and type in the correct value manually. To finish up press Enter.
3. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the add-in's pane to apply the changes you made to the selected items in the Excel worksheet.

How to set the right value to some items of the node

1. Select a node and click on the “+” symbol on the left to see all the found items of the group.
2. If you want to change some of the items, select them by holding the Ctrl key and click on the Set Value as Correct button on the line with the correct value.
3. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the add-in's pane to apply the changes you made to the selected items in the Excel worksheet.

How to set different values for separate item(s) of the node

1. Select the entry you want to correct and press the Enter key. In the Correct value column of the selected entry, type the correct value. To finish up press Enter.
2. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the add-in's pane to apply the changes you made to the selected items in the Excel worksheet.

How to remove duplicates from the results

If you want to remove an entry from the list of found duplicates, just select it and press the Delete button on your keyboard. Or, you can select several items by holding the Ctrl key and delete them.

Note! The entry will not be removed from the worksheet.

If you want to remove an entry from your Excel worksheet, click on this item in the list of found items. The cell with this value will be automatically highlighted in the Excel worksheet, so you can select the value in your table and press the Delete button on your keyboard.

How to export the search results

To see the search results on a separate worksheet, click the Export button on the Fuzzy Duplicate Finder pane:

This option may be helpful if you want to see the changes in the nodes before applying them.To export several nodes, select them by holding the Ctrl key, and click Export.

You will see a small table on a new worksheet:

How to keep the case of the same values in the node

If you have several correct values in your node that differ in case, you may want to keep their original case or to make them all look the same.

Tick the Keep case of the same values option to leave the items that differ only in case unchanged.

So, if you have Street, street, streeet and Streett in the results and you consider only the value as a misprint, not the case, then tick the Keep case of the same values option and the "street" value will keep its case:

If you don't tick this option, the case of the value chosen as correct will be applied to all the items automatically.

Note!
There can be different case within the same value (like in StReEt). If you have such items, don't tick this option to make sure that they are corrected as well.

How to cancel the last alteration

You can cancel the last change by clicking the Undo button on the Fuzzy Duplicate Finder pane:

How to start a new search

To start a new search, click the New Search button on the Fuzzy Duplicate Finder pane:

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