How to Get a Sorted List of Unique Values in Google Sheets?
Struggling with duplicate values? This guide shows you how to dynamically sort and list unique entries from a column in Google Sheets.
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The formula
"Get a sorted list of unique values from a column in Google Sheets that updates automatically using SORT and UNIQUE together"
=SORT(UNIQUE(A:A))This formula returns a sorted list of unique values from the specified column.
Step-by-step breakdown
- UNIQUE(A:A) extracts all unique values from column A.
- SORT(...) sorts the unique values in ascending order.
- The formula updates automatically as data in column A changes.
- You can replace A:A with any specific range to limit the data.
Edge cases & warnings
- The formula returns an empty list if the specified column has no values.
- If all values in the column are duplicates, it returns a single unique value.
- Sorting is case-sensitive, so 'apple' and 'Apple' are treated as different values.
- If the range includes blank cells, they will be ignored in the unique list.
Examples
"Column A: apple, banana, apple, orange"
apple, banana, orange"Column A: 1, 2, 2, 3, 1"
1, 2, 3Frequently asked questions
Can I sort unique values in descending order?
Yes, use =SORT(UNIQUE(A:A), 1, FALSE) for descending order.
Will this formula work with text and numbers?
Yes, it works with both text and numeric values.
How do I apply this to a specific range?
Replace A:A with your desired range, like A1:A10.
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