Duplicate rows

Jessica Englander

Hello. I need to create a sheet that will store committee names that will continuously be updated and needing to be approved by multiple colleagues. Every time I need to have the committee names approved, I would like to be able to dump the entire list that originates from a different source into smartsheets, including the committee names that have already been approved. When I dump the entire list in, is there a way for smartsheets to not paste in records that already exist based on a unique primary key?

Thank you very much!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Jessica Englander

Unfortunately, it's not possible at the moment without a premium add-on called Data Uploader (is that an option), but it's an excellent idea!

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment

More info about Data Uploader.

https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/data-uploader

Let me know if you have any questions about Data Uploader!

As a possible workaround, you could paste it in the sheet and then have an automatic check to indicate duplicates and structure the Approval Requests not to include them, or you could import to another sheet and then have a Workflow that only copies over the unique rows.

Make sense?

Would that 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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Jessica Englander

Thanks for the quick response! Could you please explain how to set up the automatic check to indicate duplicates?

Thinh Huynh

Hi @Jessica Englander

Let's see my example below. I have 3 main columns in the sheet, named "Sales Name, Customers, Dates"

1. I added two columns that are in brown. The "Join columns" will join all the columns on it's left by this formular : =JOIN([Sales Name]@row:Dates@row) and the "Duplicate?" column to count the number of repetitions of the row, with formular : =COUNTIF([Join columns]$1:[Join columns]@row; [Join columns]@row). As you can see, A appeared 3 times and C appearsed 2 times
2. I created an workflow to move the rows that have Duplicate? greater than 1 to other sheet (means remove them from this sheet) as below

This is the result after the moving

I hope that helps!

Andrée Starå

@Jessica Englander

Happy to help!

I saw that Thinh answered already!

Let me know if I can help with anything else!

Best,

Andrée

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!