excel remove duplicate function bugged

Question

Hello

I am using the function remove duplicate on a column and just realized that if you do not sort the data first you will have not removed all duplicates.

I have been looking around searching if this is a possible bug and it seems that many people reported it.

Will this be fixed soon?

I will keep sorting the data while using that function as it seems to be the way to go around that possible bug.

Issue can be repeated on excel 2010 windows 7 and windows 8

Thanks

Franck

Answer 1

You can remove the duplicates without sorting first and without macros.

I first tried removing duplicates manually on your posted data with the Remove Duplicates button on the Ribbon and it failed miserably.  I then tried it with VBA, using the RemoveDuplicates method of the Range Object.  This also failed miserably!

I finally tried selecting the data and used Advanced Filter > Copy to another location > Unique records only

This worked just fine!

Answer 2

used an example from another forum and it did the trick

http://sdrv.ms/13tDFhZ

tab naming should be self explanatory

Answer 3

Thanks!

Answer 4

Hi Gary,

I will try to cook up an example as I can not send any of the file on which I actually had the issue.

I will do that later on from home.

I will also provide you with the repro steps

Thanks

Franck

Answer 5

Hi Frank:

I have viewed a number of posts complaining of failure to remove duplicates, but I have never actually seen an example of this failure.  If you could post a small example (say 20 or 30 items in a single column) demonstrating the failure, I would greatly appreciate it.

I could download your example and help you develop a workaround.