Preventing Duplicates in a Column

Katherine Simpson

Hi everyone!

I have a column "Priority Ranking" in which I want to prevent duplicate values. How can I achieve this?

Ward.Hively

Hi Katherine,

Ranking priorities is always at the top of my list just never get to it... maybe I should have a sheet like this myself!

All joking aside one suggestion is the Row ID column format. In this way, the row id column can rank priorities for you, and duplicate values become an impossibility!

Let me know if this helps!

Ward Hively

Skyway Consulting Co.

Katherine Simpson

Hi @Ward.Hively

Thank you for responding. The Priority Ranking column is a dropdown column. I have an auto number field "Backlog Item", but I want to prevent duplicates in the dropdown column "Priority Ranking". I'm not sure if your suggestion would work in my case. Any other possibilities?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Katherine Simpson

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Ward's excellent advice/answer.

Is the data filled in the sheet or a form?

If it's a form, we could add Conditional Logic to make it work, but if it's in the sheet, we could add a message informing them that they can't use specific options.

Would any of those options work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Katherine Simpson

Hi Andree,

Thank you for the additional information. Right now it is only a sheet. But I will be creating a form for data entry. So, let's go with conditional formatting. How would that work?

Andrée Starå

@Katherine Simpson

Happy to help!

How many options can you have? Also, depending on the specifics, It might not work with a form. Are the priorities set in one form submission, or would they be on different rows?

Can you share some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help.

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