Find Duplicate Rows

So with no one any idea what may be causing this issueโ€ฆ

I need a way for the App to detect duplicate rows - simply where data in 5 to 6 columns match. Easy to do as a virtual column. But this App is already dog slow. A virtual column which compares 4000 rows against the other 3999 rows isnโ€™t going to help So can anyone suggest a way I can have a Report run at 23:59 each night, calling an action to run on each row, with a formula to check if the 5-6 columns on this row matches any other rows?

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What exactly do you need a suggestion on? How to write the formula? I imagine itโ€™d just be a bunch of IN()s inside of an AND(). What should happen when a duplicate is detected? Send a message? Delete the record?

Why donโ€™t you just detect duplicates when a record is initially created?

Hi @Marc_Dillon

I ok with the formula, its more a question of how to do it using Reports, Workflows and Actions

"Why donโ€™t you just detect duplicates when a record is initially created?"
The whole reason I need to do this is because users are creating duplicates. There is a formula in the linked post that should stop this from happening. Yet it isnโ€™t always doing that. Iโ€™ve tested it multiple ways and cannnot create a duplicate. My best guess at the moment is the following:

1 = They are on a mobile phone with a poor internet connection
2 = They create a record
3 = They look at a slice of records they have created and donโ€™t see this new record
4 = They create an identical record (sometimes less than 30secs after creating the first one)
5 = The current formula to ban duplicates does not function because it relies on data in a slice or large table and somehow doesnโ€™t โ€˜seeโ€™ the first record

Iโ€™ve seen evidence of this happending now 3 time and from 2 seperate users. If I go into any of these records and edit them the App instantly errors saying they are a duplicate can cannot be saved.

Hence the requirement for a double-check on a daily basis

I still donโ€™t know what you want to do.

Then write something in a column if this row is a duplicate of another

Maybe Iโ€™ll have to do it using a sheets formulaโ€ฆ

Or put in another rule that says you canโ€™t add another record until 5min or so has elasped

But Iโ€™m a bit freaked out by how this can happen

Thanks @Marc_Dillon . Sorry didnโ€™t see โ€œChange Dataโ€ button before

Ca you help me with the formula to detect the duplicated entries ?

My app relies on me entering some data manually in a google spreadsheet that represents the database for the app rather than the users entering the data in forms, so I can't use a "Valid_if" condition..

Each row have about 50 columns ๐Ÿ˜ one of them is the timestamp for the record creation so there is a chance for duplication ..

How to check if any 2 or more records contain the same data in 6 of the columns which indicates duplication?

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