Eliminate Blanks In Drop Down Lists

I am creating a form that I need to use several drop down lists (Tab 1: Drop Downs). The information that is going to be used is from different columns of a table (Tab 2: Table). This table is fed information directly from a VBA script (not shown, but not relevant). To facilitate only unique criteria from the drop downs, the table data is sorted and filtered (Tab 3: Unique Data). This is where the data validation gets it's data.

The problem that I have is that all of the drop down menus contain as many options as the column of the most unique values. That means that drop downs with fewer unique values have a quantity of blank options.

In the sample sheet, Unique Data tab:

Column A has 7 unique values.
Column D only has 3 unique values.

Because of that, when the drop down is selected for State (column D), it shows the 3 unique options and then 4 blanks.

How do I get rid of these blanks on the drop downs from columns with fewer unique data?

Have a look at the attached file.
On the "Unique" tab, I changed you formula in the highlighted cells.
On the "Dropdown" tab, check the formula for the Data Validation.
Hope this helps you.

Thanks for the help. I had to put back in the FILTER function. Some of the cells on my real workbook are blank. Without the filter, it returns a zero value for them.

I reuploaded the example with side by side reference showing with and without the filter function.

Other than that. It worked perfectly. What does the # do in the data validation formula?

The # let's you reference the entire spill range from your unique formula.

I have a somewhat similar issue but can't figure out how to apply this fix to my spreadsheet. I have attached a sample sheet.

-Tab 1 "CustomerInfo" -- is where information is entered manually other than the "color" column: It is a VLOOKUP formula that is based on what number is entered in the "Number" column.
-The number column is a data validation list that grabs its information from Tab 3 "DataDump"
-Tab 2 "Compilation" is a nice organized table of the customer data from tab 1.

My problem is with the yellow cell in Tab 2 "Compilation". How do I keep that from displaying the blanks from the drop-down list?