Skip to content
Free Excel Tutorials
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Data Analysis

  • Everything about Charts in Excel
  • Example of COUNTIFS with variable table column in Excel
  • How to Create One and Two Variable Data Tables in Excel
  • Use Data Form to input, edit and delete records in Excel
  • Data Series in Excel

References

  • How to get relative column numbers in a range in Excel
  • Create hyperlink with VLOOKUP in Excel
  • How to get last row in mixed data with blanks in Excel
  • Get nth match with INDEX / MATCH in Excel
  • To count total rows in a range in Excel

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation only dates between
  • Excel Data validation no punctuation
  • Data validation must not exist in list
  • Excel Data validation require unique number
  • Excel Data validation date in specific year

Excel Data validation require unique number

by

Set criteria to accept only unique number, ie no duplicate.

To allow only unique numbers in a given range, you can use data validation with a custom formula based on the AND, ISNUMBER, and COUNTIF functions.

Formula

=AND(ISNUMBER(A1),COUNTIF(range,A1)<2)

Cell references in data validation formulas are relative to the upper left cell in the range selected when the validation rule is defined, in this case B5.

Explanation

In the example shown, the data validation applied to B5:B9 is:

=AND(ISNUMBER(B5),COUNTIF(ids,B5)<2)

where ids is the named range B5:B9.

How this formula works

Data validation rules are triggered when a user adds or changes a cell value.

The AND function takes multiple arguments (logical expressions) and returns TRUE only when all arguments return TRUE. In this case, we need two conditions:

Logical 1 tests if the input is a number using the ISNUMBER function:

ISNUMBER(B5)

The ISNUMBER function returns TRUE when a value is numeric and FALSE if not.

Logical 2 tests checks that the input doesn’t already exist in the named range “ids”:

COUNTIF(ids,B5)<2

COUNTIF returns a count of the value in B5 inside the named range ids (B5:B9). If the count is less than 2, the logical expression returns TRUE.

If both logical expressions return TRUE, the AND function returns TRUE and validation succeeds:

=AND(TRUE,TRUE) // validation successful

If either logical returns FALSE, data validation fails.

Note: Be aware that numeric input includes dates and times, whole numbers, and decimal values.

Post navigation

Previous Post:

DECIMAL function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Next Post:

AVERAGE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others

Logical Functions

  • Excel If, Nested If, And/Or Criteria Examples
  • NOT function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • IF with boolean logic in Excel
  • SWITCH function example in Excel
  • Not Equal To ‘<>‘ operator in Excel

Date Time

  • Count holidays between two dates in Excel
  • How to get Holiday Date from Year in Excel
  • Get last day of month in Excel
  • Convert time to time zone in Excel
  • How to calculate nth day of year in Excel

Grouping

  • Group times into unequal buckets in Excel
  • Map text to numbers in Excel
  • Calculate conditional mode with criteria in Excel
  • Map inputs to arbitrary values in Excel
  • Categorize text with keywords in Excel

General

  • Lock Cells in a Worksheet Excel
  • Hide and Unhide Columns or Rows in Excel
  • Count cells that do not contain many strings in Excel
  • Excel Default Templates
  • How to get original number from percent change in Excel
© 2026 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning