Unique combination of values in 7 columns

**excelmac1** · 12-03-2014, 03:26 PM

Hi guys

I have 7 columns (variables) across which I have a total of 1500 observations (rows). I need to get unique combination of all these 7 variables. Is there a way to do this in excel ?

Thank you

**MarvinP** · 12-03-2014, 03:35 PM

Hi excelmac1 and welcome to the forum,

Look at the Data Tab and Remove Duplicates Icon. That would be a start.

See if that does what you need.

**excelmac1** · 12-03-2014, 03:58 PM

thanks MarvinP

I'm not looking at deleting any duplicates or anything. I just need unique combinations

e.g.

V1=a,b,c,d
V2=1,2,3,4

I need output such that

a1, a2, a3,a4, b1,b2,b3,b4, c1,c2,c3,c4,d1,d2,d3,d4

As you can see, variable1 and variable 2 values were used to get all unique combinations possible for the values of these two variables.

I have 7 variables instead of 2 and 15000 observations instead of 4

**MarvinP** · 12-03-2014, 04:04 PM

Hi,

Can you attach a short (sample) workbook of your data, giving what you have and what you expect to see. We need a small sample to understand what you mean by "combinations". Does order matter in the answer? Are the combinations in pairs or do all 7 columns need to be present in a unique combination.

To attache a workbook, click on "Go Advanced" then on the Paper Clip icon above the advanced message area.

**excelmac1** · 12-03-2014, 04:49 PM

Please see attached a sample.

All 6 variables have to be present in the combination (I've just used 6 variables for this excercise). If I can figure it out for 6 I can replicate for 7 or more variables