IF function

[Jere Stiglitz]

I am keeping contribution data for a political campaign
and it is very important for me to know if there are any
duplicate names. I enter each batch at the end of the
sheet, then Sort. I already have over 1,000 entries and it
is very time consuming to scan the entire spredasheet each
time checking for duplicates.

I would like to do the following:

B:1 contains Last Name C:1 contains First Name

Compare cells B:1 and C:1 against B:2 and C:2 and if they
are a match insert the word Check into A:2 and if no match
leave Column A blank

Or is there even a simpler way to do this?

Thanking you ahead of time.

 

[Paul]

I am keeping contribution data for a political campaign
and it is very important for me to know if there are any
duplicate names. I enter each batch at the end of the
sheet, then Sort. I already have over 1,000 entries and it
is very time consuming to scan the entire spredasheet each
time checking for duplicates.

I would like to do the following:

B:1 contains Last Name C:1 contains First Name

Compare cells B:1 and C:1 against B:2 and C:2 and if they
are a match insert the word Check into A:2 and if no match
leave Column A blank

Or is there even a simpler way to do this?

Thanking you ahead of time.

Cell references should be A1, B2, etc., not A:1.
Put this formula in A2 and copy down as far as required:
=IF(AND(B2=B1,C2=C1),"Check","")

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I am keeping contribution data for a political campaign
and it is very important for me to know if there are any
duplicate names. I enter each batch at the end of the
sheet, then Sort. I already have over 1,000 entries and it
is very time consuming to scan the entire spredasheet each
time checking for duplicates.

I would like to do the following:

B:1 contains Last Name C:1 contains First Name

Compare cells B:1 and C:1 against B:2 and C:2 and if they
are a match insert the word Check into A:2 and if no match
leave Column A blank

Or is there even a simpler way to do this?

Thanking you ahead of time.

To check all of the names for duplicates, use the array formula:

=IF(SUM(--($B$1:$B$10000&$C$1:$C$10000=B1&C1))>1,"check","")

in A1 and copy it down as far as necessary.

You may need to adjust the $B$10000 and $C$10000 to reflect the number of
donors.

To ARRAY-ENTER a formula, hold down <ctrl><shift> while hitting <enter>. XL
will place braces {...} around the formula.


--ron