How to find first unique value in a column of SKU?-CodePudding

So I have two columns, A & B, (like below). There's 2 components to the ID, the design (CEN101A) and the size (-6).

I'm trying find the first item of each design. So in this example, I would highlight (CEN106A-6, CEN101B-6, CEN101D-6, etc.). This is so I can use them as a parent for the other sizes.

I've tried many in-built functions but nothing seems to work. Is VBA able to easily find these values?

CodePudding user response：

@BigBen is right, this is fairly easy if you can find what the actual design code is. For good measure I'd use a running count and add the hyphen back including a wildcard into the COUNTIF():

Formula for conditional formatting rule on range A2:A7:

=COUNTIF(A$2:A2,@TEXTSPLIT(A2,"-")&"-*")=1

CodePudding user response：

In newer versions of Excel you can use the unique function. However, in your case of using Excel 2013, a helper column with the following formula would be useful. In a column to the right add:

=IF(COUNTIF(A$2:A2,A2)=1,"New","Dup")

And then you can filter on "New". No VBA required...