Appending new records to a sheet from excel and avoid duplicates.

tarak

I have a sheet I maintain where the core data comes from an excel export. The problem is this excel export is for the whole year and with no easy way to identify the new records since the last time the export was run, so when I copy and paste the records it creates duplicates.

Once the data is in the sheet, there are a few columns that are manually updated relating to these records.

My current process is to copy and paste all the records into my sheet. Then I have formula columns to identify duplicate records without the additional fields completed. This allows me to identify the records that can be deleted.

This process works for me, but I will likely be handing it over to someone. I curious if there are other potential solutions to consider that may work better.

Thanks!

Matt Lynn ACT

@tarak This is a perfect solution/use case for Data Shuttle. As long as your excel as some kind of a unique value per row, it will add and keep rows up to date as they are maintained in excel. Let me know if you'd like to discuss and we can setup a meeting to chat more.

tarak

Thank you @Matt Lynn ACT. I was afraid that may be the answer. I will share this with our decision maker for Smartsheet. The unique identifier is a combination of two fields. I did come up with a solution I like better than I originally had. I created a raw data sheet then added a two columns 1) to concatenate the two fields 2) to count the occurrences in the main sheet. Then I added automation to move the row when the count is zero.