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

Data Analysis

  • How To Create Frequency Distribution in Excel
  • How To Insert and Customize Sparklines in Excel
  • How to calculate current stock or inventory in Excel
  • Understanding Pivot Tables in Excel
  • Number and Text Filters Examples in Excel

References

  • Extract data with helper column in Excel
  • Count rows with at least n matching values
  • Multi-criteria lookup and transpose in Excel
  • How to get last row in text data in Excel
  • LOOKUP function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation date in specific year
  • Excel Data validation unique values only
  • Data validation must not exist in list
  • Excel Data validation don’t exceed total
  • Excel Data validation must begin with

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

  • OR function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • SWITCH function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • IFS function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • AND function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • OR function Examples in Excel

Date Time

  • Calculate number of hours between two times in Excel
  • Display the current date and time in Excel
  • Extract time from a date and time in Excel
  • Get first day of month in Excel
  • Add workdays to date custom weekends in Excel

Grouping

  • Map text to numbers in Excel
  • If cell contains one of many things in Excel
  • Group times into unequal buckets in Excel
  • Group numbers at uneven intervals in Excel
  • Calculate conditional mode with criteria in Excel

General

  • How to calculate percent of students absent in Excel
  • How to count total columns in range in Excel
  • How to increase by percentage in Excel
  • Delete Blank Rows at Once in Excel
  • How to generate random date between two dates in Excel
© 2026 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning