I am obsessed with unique values, I guess it has something to do the quality data of I get to work with. So much so that it is the first excel post I have written on this blog, way back in 2006. Today I want to share with you all one more way (Not again man, you did that 2 weeks back) to extract unique values. I promise that I wont propose another unique idea to extract unique values (remember, I can still write about ways to remove duplicates… 😛 )
Ok, enough introduction already. Here goes another unique items extraction technique, this time using Pivot Tables.
1. Just select the data from which you need to extract unique items
2. Create a Pivot Table (in Excel 2003 menu > data > pivot table and in Excel 2007 Insert > Pivot Table)
3. Drag and drop a column in the pivot table and you will instantly see all unique values for that column.
4. Copy the values and use paste special to extract the values.
Why I love this technique:
It is scalable and works really well with large data. If your data changes just refresh the pivot. Also, when you need to extract unique values for multiple columns this technique is really good, for eg. unique customer names, product names, cities from monthly sales report. Despite the manual step of creating the pivot tables, this method is highly reliable.
Also checkout other ways to filter unique items or eliminate duplicates:
> Getting unique items using data filter and formulas
> Use advanced data filters to find unique items
> Eliminate Duplicate Entries in a List using Formulas
> Get Unique items using Excel 2007 built in features
What is your favorite way of extracting unique items ? Or you are happy with with few duplicates here and and there ?
6 Responses to “Make VBA String Comparisons Case In-sensitive [Quick Tip]”
Another way to test if Target.Value equal a string constant without regard to letter casing is to use the StrCmp function...
If StrComp("yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
' Do something
End If
That's a cool way to compare. i just converted my values to strings and used the above code to compare. worked nicely
Thanks!
In case that option just needs to be used for a single comparison, you could use
If InStr(1, "yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) Then
'do something
End If
as well.
Nice tip, thanks! I never even thought to think there might be an easier way.
Regarding Chronology of VB in general, the Option Compare pragma appears at the very beginning of VB, way before classes and objects arrive (with VB6 - around 2000).
Today StrComp() and InStr() function offers a more local way to compare, fully object, thus more consistent with object programming (even if VB is still interpreted).
My only question here is : "what if you want to binary compare locally with re-entering functions or concurrency (with events) ?". This will lead to a real nightmare and probably a big nasty mess to debug.
By the way, congrats for you Millions/month visits 🙂
This is nice article.
I used these examples to help my understanding. Even Instr is similar to Find but it can be case sensitive and also case insensitive.
Hope the examples below help.
Public Sub CaseSensitive2()
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbBinaryCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub CaseSensitive()
If InStr("Look in this string", "look") = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub NotCaseSensitive()
'doing alot of case insensitive searching and whatnot, you can put Option Compare Text
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub