Find duplicate or unique rows in one Google sheet

Use the Remove Duplicates add-on for Google Sheets to deal with duplicated data in your table. Find, delete, move, copy, or clear duplicate or unique rows in your spreadsheet.

• Video: How to remove duplicates in Google Sheets
• Before you start
• How to use the Remove Duplicates add-on
  • Start Remove Duplicates
  • Step 1: Select your data
  • Step 2: Choose what to find
  • Step 3: Pick the columns to check
  • Step 4: Decide what to do with the found values
  • See the result
• How to work with scenarios
  • What is a scenario
  • Save the scenario
  • Run your scenario
  • Manage scenarios

Before you start

We care about your data and suggest you always create backup copies of your spreadsheets. A special option of the add-on will do that for you if you select it.

Please bear in mind that Google Sheets limits the total number of possible cells in your file up to 5 million cells.

How to use the Remove Duplicates add-on

Start Remove Duplicates

Open the Add-ons menu, find Remove Duplicates, and click on the Find duplicate or unique rows tool:

Step 1: Select your data

Here you can select the range with the data you want to search in:

By default, the add-on highlights the entire table in the sheet of your choice.

You can alter the range by entering the needed address in the Select the range with your table field or by clicking the Select range icon. The latter will open a dialog box and allow you to pick the necessary cells:

You can choose to back up your original table by selecting the checkbox Create a backup copy of the sheet.

Click Next to proceed to the second step.

Step 2: Choose what to find

The add-on lets you check your table for 4 types of data:

• Pick Duplicates to get rid of any repeating rows in your table. The add-on will keep unique records and the first entries of any duplicates you have. Your dataset will become clear of any extra replicates:
  
• Select Duplicates + 1st occurrences to see the original entries as well as their copies:
  
• Choose the Uniques option to find only those rows that don't have any duplicates in the sheet:
  
• The Uniques + 1st occurrences option lets you find everything except for the duplicates. The add-on will look for the first entries of duplicated data in addition to unique records:
  

You can return to step 1 by clicking Back.

Click Next to go on to the next step.

Step 3: Pick the columns to check

Here you will see a list of columns in your table - tick off those you want to check for duplicates:

• You can tick off the Skip empty cells option to ignore duplicated blanks in the selected columns. Otherwise, blank matches will be considered duplicates.
• If you have header rows, make sure to check My table has headers to see your column titles. If you don't have headers, unselect this box to display column names.
  Tip. Take advantage of the 1st row content fields to see what kind of data you have in each column.
• Use the Case sensitive option to treat the records that differ only in case as uniques.
  Tip. Leading and trailing spaces in cell values are ignored by default.

Click Next to proceed to the last step.

Step 4: Decide what to do with the found values

The add-on allows you to choose one of six ways to deal with the found records:

Select the radio button next to the action you'd like to apply:

• Highlight the rows with the found entries by picking the Fill with color option. Click on the arrow next to it to pick the hue you'd like to use.
• Choose to Add a status column to identify the rows of interest in a separate column.
  Tip. You can make use of this additional column later to sort the data.
• The Copy to another location option lets you review search results in another sheet, spreadsheet, or a range of your choice.
• Cut and paste the found records to another sheet, spreadsheet, or a specific place in the document with the Move to another location option.
• Decide to Clear values to delete the found entries in the selected key columns and leave all other data intact.
• You can also remove all lines with the detected values using the Delete rows within selection option.

Click Finish to find duplicate or unique values.

See the result

Once the add-on completes the search, you will see the summary of the results with the number of found values and the action that was applied:

To save these settings and use them in the future, click Save scenario.

How to work with scenarios

If you work with the add-on often, most likely you have to deal with going over the steps and choosing the same options over and over again. Scenarios will help you reduce the number of your mouse-clicks drastically.

What is a scenario

Once the data is processed and you get the final message, save the options the add-on has used just now into a new scenario. In the future, run this scenario and it will initiate the search with the same settings right away.

Isn't this marvellous? 🙂

Save the scenario

To save settings into a scenario, click the corresponding option under the result message:

You will see the window with the summary of settings. Look through it to make some adjustments for the future scenario if necessary:

1. Give your scenario a name that will help you understand what it does at a glance.
2. Set the sheet for the scenario to process:
   • Choose [Selected sheet] and the add-on will work with the tab that is active when running the scenario.
   • Pick any sheet from the list and the add-on will always deal with it, no matter from what tab you start the scenario.
     Note. This doesn't support the [Selected range] option from below. For this range, you will have to start the scenario exactly from the sheet you want to process.
3. Specify what data range should be scanned:
   • If you choose [Selected range], the scenario will be applied to the range you select manually.
     Note. For this range to be processed, make sure to run the scenario from the very sheet you want to modify.
   • [All data] signals the scenario to use the entire used range for work.
   • You can also enter an exact range for the add-on to always handle the same cells.
4. Check if other options you've just selected on steps 2-4 are correct.
   Note. These options cannot be modified. If you'd like to change something here, please restart the add-on to pick the correct settings.

When your scenario is ready, hit Save.

Run your scenario

To start the scenario, go to Add-ons > Remove Duplicates > Run scenario and click on the necessary name:

This will initiate the work of the add-on with all the necessary settings.

Once it's finished, you will see the result message saying what scenario has been used and what has been found:

Manage scenarios

You can view and manage your scenarios anytime from the Google Sheets menu.

Just go to Add-ons > Remove Duplicates > View & manage scenario and click the name of what you want to review:

You will see the same window with the scenario summary and will be able to rename it and change the sheet or the range:

Press Save to keep the changes or Delete to get rid of the scenario permanently.