Counting duplicates in Excel

Question

I have a list of postcodes that includes duplicates. I would like to find out how many instances of each postcode there are.

For example I would like this:

Answer 1

I don't know if it's entirely possible to do your ideal pattern. But I found a way to do your first way: CountIF

+-------+-------------------+
|   A   |         B         |
+-------+-------------------+
| GL15  | =COUNTIF(A:A, A1) |
+-------+-------------------+
| GL15  | =COUNTIF(A:A, A2) |
+-------+-------------------+
| GL15  | =COUNTIF(A:A, A3) |
+-------+-------------------+
| GL16  | =COUNTIF(A:A, A4) |
+-------+-------------------+
| GL17  | =COUNTIF(A:A, A5) |
+-------+-------------------+
| GL17  | =COUNTIF(A:A, A6) |
+-------+-------------------+

Answer 2

This can be done using pivot tables. See this youtube video for a walkthrough: Quickly Count Duplicates in Excel List With Pivot Table.

To count the number of times each item is duplicated in an Excel list, you can use a pivot table, instead of manually creating a list with formulas.

Answer 3

You can achieve your result in two steps. First, create a list of unique entries using Advanced Filter... from the pull down Filter menu. To do so, you have to add a name of the column to be sorted out. It is necessary, otherwise Excel will treat first row as a name rather than an entry. Highlight column that you want to filter (A in the example below), click the filter icon and chose 'Advanced Filter...'. That will bring up a window where you can select an option to "Copy to another location". Choose that one, as you will need your original list to do counts (in my example I will choose C:C). Also, select "Unique record only". That will give you a list of unique entries. Then you can count their frequencies using =COUNTIF() command. See screedshots for details.

Hope this helps!

  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
  |   A    |   B   |   C    |         D         |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
1 | ToSort |       | ToSort |                   |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
2 |  GL15  |       | GL15   | =COUNTIF(A:A, C2) |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
3 |  GL15  |       | GL16   | =COUNTIF(A:A, C3) |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
4 |  GL15  |       | GL17   | =COUNTIF(A:A, C4) |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
5 |  GL16  |       |        |                   |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
6 |  GL17  |       |        |                   |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+
7 |  GL17  |       |        |                   |
  +--------+-------+--------+-------------------+

Answer 4

Step 1: Select top cell of the data

Step 2 : Select Data > Sort.

Step 3 : Select Data >Subtotal

Step 4 : Change use function to "count" and click OK.

Step 5 : Collapse to 2

Answer 5

Say A:A contains the post codes, you could add a B column and put a 1 in each cell. In C1, put =SUMIF(A:A, A1, B:B) and Drag it down your sheet. That would give you the first desired result listed in your question.

EDIT: As Corey pointed out, you can just use COUNTIF(A:A, A1). As I mentioned in the comments you can copy paste special the row with formulas to hard code the counts, the select column A and click remove duplicates (entire row) to get your ideal result.

Answer 6

If you are not looking for Excel formula, Its easy from the Menu

Data Menu --> Remove Duplicates would alert, if there are no duplicates

Also, if you see the count and reduced after removing duplicates...