How to delete duplicate rows from a excel file

The method demonstrated here is applicable for 

- Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and
- Microsoft Excel 2002.
A duplicate row or a duplicate record means all values in the row are an exact match of all the values in another row.

In this post I will filter excel list for unique rows, delete the original list, and then replace it with the filtered list. So before proceeding I recommend you backup the original excel file because existing excel file will be overwritten.

Step by step solution is provided.

Step 01: Open the excel document. Select all the rows, including the column headers in the list.
Step 02: On the Data menu, point to Filter, and then click Advanced Filter.
Step 03: In the Advanced Filter dialog box, click Filter the list, in place.
Step 04: Select the Unique records only check box, and then click OK.

The filtered list is displayed and the duplicate rows are hidden.

Step 05: On the Edit menu, click Office Clipboard.
The Clipboard task pane is displayed.

Step 06: Copy the filtered list. You filtered list should be still selected and you just need to press CTRL+C or just click Copy button.

In this stage the filtered list is highlighted with bounding outlines and the selection appears as an item at the top of the Clipboard.

Step 07: In this step just delete the original list because we want to overwrite it. To delete the original list on the Data menu, point to Filter, click Show All, original list will be displayed and then press DELETE key.

Step 08: In the Clipboard, click on the filtered list item. The filtered list appears in the same location as the original list.