Translatum Greek Translation Forum

[spiros]

The Duplicate Master (add-in to delete duplicates in Excel)

I cannot find the web site or the program online. Luckily, I still have a copy. Attached. Tested only on Excel 2003. Not sure if it works on Excel 2007.

Installing The Duplicate Master

Download Duplicate Master.zip to your PC  
Extract The Duplicate Master.xla and Duplicate Master.chm to a directory on your computer.
Start Excel, from the Tools menu,  select Add-ins and then Browse to the directory where you saved The Duplicate Master.xla.
Select The Duplicate Master.xla and press Ok.
In the Add-Ins dialog box, place a check mark next to The Duplicate Master.
Click OK.  
Excel will now display a new command under the Tools menu, The Duplicate Master V1.0.

[Vion]

Wow! Thanks you Spiros :-) (I also couldn't find it on line) -will try it out after lunch and let you know how it went.

[Vion]

I got it to work by using the 'select duplicates' option and then deleting the selected rows :-) Nearly perfect results -it did miss a few duplicate rows but saved many tedious hours of doing this manually! (I wonder if there is a practical limit to the number of rows that can be processed).

[spiros]

You can try ASAP utilities too. Range -> Clear duplicated values in selection.
Or, the procedure in Excel as described in the link you provided

[ select the column you want and then select Date/Filter/Advanced filter and check the Unique records only option.]
http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php/topic,711.0.html

[brettdj]

Hi guys,

Great to hear you are finding it useful :)

On the queries above:

1) Yes, it will work in xl2007. More by luck than design, as the error handling I built back in 2004 dodges the menu to ribbon change from xl2003 to xl2007
2) The addin looks for an exact string match - so a string with the same apparent content but additional whitespaces will be ignore. This is the most likely cause of the "missed" matches. If I ever do get around to a new version I will add options for case insensitive and "ignore whitespace" matches

Regards
Dave

[Vion]

Dear Dave,
It's a happy occurrence to see the author of this invaluable software posting on Translatum!
MS Excel does not seem to handle this function well on its own, even in the 2007 version, so the Duplicate Master is a life saver for those of us working on large compilation type files.
The addition of the options you mention would surely be met with great enthusiasm, so I hope that you do get around to creating a new version. :-)

[spiros]

2) The addin looks for an exact string match - so a string with the same apparent content but additional whitespaces will be ignore. This is the most likely cause of the "missed" matches. If I ever do get around to a new version I will add options for case insensitive and "ignore whitespace" matches

One can easily fix whitespace, leading/trailing spaces issues with ASAP utilities - Text -> Delete leading, trailing and excessive spaces. This should be a prerequisite procedure before running duplicate checking functions on excel.

[brettdj]

ASAP is the only general purpose utility that I use, I highly recommend it

I agree that generally whitespaces should be ignored for comparisons ..... and I have added heavy duty string compatability options (including Regular Expression functionality) to the beta version of Duplicate Master V2.0 available for testing and comment at http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29338.

The underlying code has also been optimised, it will be even quicker than before.

Regards

Dave (brettdj)

[spiros]

Thanks, Dave. It appears that one has to be a registered user at the forum to access the download...

[brettdj]

V2 is available with a short tutorial at experts exchange at this link, http://w.e-e.com/aVqn1z

Please note that while I highly recommend EE for technology solutions, you do not need an EE account to access the Duplicate Master article

Regards

brettdj

[spiros]

Thanks, Dave.