Help Centre › Building Processes
This article describes the RPA Excel functionality to remove duplicate rows.
For a full list of available functions, please read EXCEL functions.
Description
The EXCEL Remove duplicates function removes duplicate rows from a range. On Windows, it uses Excel's built-in RemoveDuplicates feature. On macOS, it uses a Python-based deduplication. You can optionally specify which columns to check for duplicates.
Setting it up
To use the EXCEL Remove duplicates function, follow these instructions:
{{popups:rpas/add:action=excel-remove-duplicates}}
Once on a process map:
- Navigate to the process where you would like to add the EXCEL Remove duplicates function
- Click on the green button's drop-down (right side of the green button labelled "Process")
- On the menu that appears, click on the "+ Activity" item
- From here you can select the EXCEL Remove duplicates option
- Click "Add" once you are done
Input parameters
| Parameter | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File path | Yes | Text | – | Full path to the Excel file. |
| Sheet | Yes | Text | – | Name of the sheet. |
| Range | No | Text | Used range | Range address (e.g. A1:D100). Defaults to the used range of the sheet. |
| Columns to check | No | Text | All columns | Comma-separated column names or letters to check for duplicates (e.g. A, B or Name, Email). |
Output variables
This action does not produce any output variables.
Errors
| Error | Description |
|---|---|
| File not open | The Excel file must be open. |
| Sheet not found | The specified sheet does not exist. |
| Column not found | A specified column name or letter does not exist in the range. |
Tips
- If no columns are specified, all columns are compared to determine duplicates.
- The first occurrence of each duplicate is kept; subsequent duplicates are removed.
- Specify only key columns (e.g. Email) to remove rows with duplicate emails regardless of other column values.