Explanation
This example uses the UNIQUE function, which is fully automatic. When UNIQUE is provided with the range B5:B16, which contains 12 values, it returns the 7 unique values seen in D5:D11.
UNIQUE is a dynamic function. If any data in B5:B16 changes, the output from UNIQUE will update immediately.
Dynamic source range
UNIQUE won't automatically adjust the source range if data is added or deleted. To feed UNIQUE a dynamic range that will automatically resize as needed, you can use an Excel Table, or create a dynamic named range with a formula.
UNIQUE is a new function available in Office 365 only.
Related formulas
Extract unique items from a list
The core of this formula is a basic lookup with INDEX: =INDEX(list,row) In other words, give INDEX the list and a row number, and INDEX will retrieve a value to add to the unique list. The hard work is figuring out the ROW number to give INDEX, so that we get unique values only. This is done with...
Distinct values
This example uses the UNIQUE function . With default settings, UNIQUE will output a list of unique values, i.e. values that appear one or more times in the source data. However, UNIQUE has an optional third argument, called occurs_once that, when set to TRUE, will cause UNIQUE to return only values...
Count unique values
This example uses the UNIQUE function to extract unique values. When UNIQUE is provided with the range B5:B16, which contains 12 values, it returns the 7 unique values seen in D5:D11. These are returned directly to the COUNTA function as an array like this: =COUNTA({"red";"amber";"green";"blue";"...
Related functions
UNIQUE Function
The Excel UNIQUE function returns a list of unique values in a list or range. Values can be text, numbers, dates, times, etc.
