Don’t Be Duped by Duplicates

The old adage, GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) is a common premise to Good Database Management. Along with GIGO, it is also important to minimize or eliminate Duplicate Data in your records, as it can cause havoc when extracting information.

A Duplicates Issue can arise in many instances, and it is almost never intentional: Combining of departmental databases, updating data, common entry errors, and others.  Ever since Excel 2007, there are ways to Quickly Remove all of you duplicate data.

How to Remove Duplicates:

These days, it is amusingly easy to remove your duplicate records, and to do so with a Bit of Discretion:  

1.  Select the entire database (Caution: Do not select any self-generating key fields)
2.  Go to the Data Tools group on the Data tab, and click Remove Duplicates
3.  Select your database or table and click OK
4.  A Remove Duplicate information box will pop up (as shown below) giving you options as to how you want Excel to identify “Duplicates”
5.  Using our example as a reference, you can then choose to eliminate all duplicates by Month, Rep, and/or Sales. 

 When you first consider the task of Removing Duplicates to maintain the Integrity of your data, it may seem quite challenging. As with nearly all things Excel, however, once you know how to do it, it seems so Simple, you may actually Laugh…