[Feature Request] Remove Duplicates

[DennisLinke]

Dear all,

in my institute for proteomics research, we are on a good way to switch from Microsoft Office 2007 to LibreOffice 4.3. However, we miss one feature a lot that Excel provides:
Remove Duplicate Items

I found a solution (or workaround [see link at the end of the post]), but this is not as straight forwards as it is done in Excel. Here, you simply select the range of items, click remove duplicate items é volia, only the unique items stay.

Is there any chance that this function (as a single button feature) is going to be added to LO?

Best regards,

Dennis

[link]

How to find duplicate rows in gnumeric or Libreoffice calc

[Lupp]

I wouldn’t even trust LibreOffice Calc to know exactly what I mean by ‘Duplicate’, not to speak of Excel(R). The suggestion by Manuel Schulte, linked in above, may give me full control if I thoroughly design the formulae. Nonetheless I wouldn’t easily throw away ‘Duplicates’ but try to find out for what reason they were introduced. There may come up an efficiency issue, of course.

(I don’t know, however, anything about proteomics.)

[JohnSUN]

Do you really believe that all features of Excel - necessary and unnecessary - must be transferred to the LibreOffice?

Let’s count the number of clicks (I know that you already know the correct sequence of steps)

Set cursor to any cell in list (if necessary) - click 1

Choose Data - Filter - Standard Filter - clicks 2-3

Leave Field name and Condition unchanged, select Not empty from the list of values - clicks 4-5.

Expand Options - click 6.

Check No duplications - click 7.

Check Copy results to, click Shrink, click target cell, click Maximize (if necessary) - clicks 8-9-10-11.

Click OK - last click, 12.

So, you must do 7 or 10 or 12 clicks.
How many clicks and key pressed must do developers to fulfill your whim?

Do you want to know the answer to this question? Just write and debug your own macros that perform these actions for you.

Firstly, you get the right solution for you. Second, to learn not to burden the developers to find solutions to already solved problems (IMHO)

[JJGallego]

When you have an automatic program that gives you hundred of documents with duplication, those 12 clicks became in thousands, and yet you have to learn to write macros because some lazy programmer thinks that you have to. Thanks Mr Empathy

[JohnSUN]

@JJGallego Please note that the question and answer were written 6 years ago. At that time, Remove Duplicates and Remove Duplicates Fast had not yet been written and published, and the “No duplicates” option was always present in the filter. In any case, for your example “an automatic program that gives you hundred of documents with duplication”, perhaps it is not Calc that should be criticized, but that generator program?

[DennisLinke]

@JohnSUN

Well, making own makros is not the problem (for me). However, if there are several non-programmers who would like to switch to LO but are missing this one feature, which is used quite often, they will stick at MO and not change.

Anyway, the steps to remove duplicates you pasted are exactly the same as explained in the link, I have attached in my initial post.

Again, this is not for complaining LO and the product, but it could enhance its functionality and its distribution at lot!

Quote: Firstly, you get the right solution for you.

Usually, people want it to be straight forward. Usually, they select the stuff to be checked for duplicates, press a button and then wait for the “answer”. They simply do not want to make this extra steps if this is solved easy in Excel. Then they ask: “Why should I change to LO? I loose a feature or the possibility to do this in a fast way.”

Quote: Second, to learn not to burden the developers to find solutions to already solved problems (IMHO)

If there is already a solution, why not simply putting the steps together into a single button? Then, everybody can access this feature within a short periode of time. Honestly, people do not want to do everything by hand. It is that simple. If the feature does not exist (as a button) this is recognized as a missing feature! I can see this day in day out…

@Lupp
In proteomics, you often end up with different txt files which you import into Calc or Excel (or similar programs). Either, you code your own tools or (more common for the majority of people) you use MO Excel or LO Calc to work on the data.
That is the way people work (without saying this is a good or bad way ;)).

Best regards,
Dennis

[JohnSUN]

OK, I accept your arguments. So you want remove duplicate values from the data range with a single click? If there will be two clicks, it’s really bad? How about to experience this extension? It seems doubtful that many of the hundreds of users daily feel the need to remove duplicates. Those few people who really need it all the time, can complement the functionality of the office suite with the help of such extensions, isn’t it?