There are rare occasions where you have collected data in spreadsheet and will need to utilize that data for further voter outreach. Many times, you will want to reach out to the DFL Data Team to upload that information into one of our tools. No matter what you're doing with the data, having duplicate records can make your work less efficient and may result in your contacting a voter numerous times. In this article, we will cover how to remove duplicates from a spreadsheet using both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.



Removing Duplicates with Google Sheets


Removing duplicates is a pretty simple practice in Google Sheets! First log into your google account and pull up the spreadsheet you would like to work with. 


Highlight the full spreadsheet by clicking the crosshairs in the top left corner. You will know the sheet is selected when  the cells are a transparent blue.


From your menu, click on "Data." Scroll down to and click on "Remove Duplicates." See below for what that will look like!


A pop-up window will appear asking you what columns you'd like to analyze and if there is a header row. In this example, we do have a header row and we want to analyze all columns. Once you've made your selection, click on the green "Remove Duplicates."


There will be another pop-up window that tells you how many duplicates were found. Click "OK" to remove the duplicates. If there are no duplicates, the pop-up will say "No duplicate rows were found" and you can click "OK" to exit the menu.



Removing Duplicates with Microsoft Excel


Removing duplicates is a pretty simple practice in Microsoft Excel! First open Excel and pull up the spreadsheet you would like to work with. 

Highlight the full spreadsheet by clicking the crosshairs in the top left corner. You will know the sheet is selected when  the cells are a transparent grey.


From your menu, click on "Data." Click on "Remove Duplicates." See below for what that will look like!



A pop-up window will appear asking you what columns you'd like to analyze and if there is a header row. In this example, we do have a header row and we want to analyze all columns. Once you've made your selection, click on "Ok."



There will be another pop-up window that tells you how many duplicates were found. Click "OK" to remove the duplicates. If there are no duplicates, the pop-up will say "No duplicate rows were found" and you can click "OK" to exit the menu.




Questions or feedback? Please email us at voterfile@dfl.org 

 

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