Remove Duplicate Rows From A Power Apps Collection



Remove the duplicate rows from any Power Apps collection with this 1 line of code.

//Duplicate removal code
ClearCollect(colSolution, ForAll(Distinct(yourCollectionName, ThisRecord), Result));



Here’s how it works:

The Distinct function returns a one-column table of unique values for a field. But when we use ThisRecord instead of a column name it results in a one-column table of unique records. Then we loop over the one column table using ForAll to extract the rows into a multliple column table.

For more help with collections check out my Power Apps Collections Cookbook. There are over 50 examples and code you can copy + paste into your own apps.



Full Example: Remove Duplicate Rows


Input Collection

Start with this Power Apps collection named colVehicles.

YearMakeModel
2020FordF150
2018ChevySilverado
2020FordF150
2020FordF150
2017NissanFrontier
2016GMYukon
2016GMYukon



Output Collection

Our goal is to remove the duplicate rows from the Power Apps collection colVehicles and achieve this result.

YearMakeModel
2020FordF150
2018ChevySilverado
2017NissanFrontier
2016GMYukon


Solution Code

Use this code to remove the duplicate rows from colVehicles.

//Create a collection
ClearCollect(colVehicles,
    {Year: 2020, Make: "Ford", Model: "F150"},
    {Year: 2018, Make: "Chevy", Model: "Silverado" },
    {Year: 2020, Make: "Ford", Model: "F150" },
    {Year: 2020, Make: "Ford", Model: "F150"},
    {Year: 2017, Make: "Nissan", Model: "Frontier"},
    {Year: 2016, Make: "GM", Model: "Yukon"},
    {Year: 2016, Make: "GM", Model: "Yukon"}
);

//Duplicate removal code
ClearCollect(mySolution, ForAll(Distinct(colVehicles, ThisRecord), Result));





Questions?

If you have any questions about Remove Duplicate Rows From A Power Apps Collection please leave a message in the comments section below. You can post using your email address and are not required to create an account to join the discussion.

Matthew Devaney

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

18 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
George Ellis
George Ellis
1 year ago

Interesting Mattโ€”thanks. On a related note, you make me think of the times I want to step through a collection and modify one value in each row. Because you cannot modify what youโ€™re using for the index, I make a whole new copy of the entire collection. Looking at this, I wonder if I could just use something like

ForAll(Distinct(fullCltn, fullCltnGUID), and then step through the GUIDs. If something like this would work, it would sure save a lot of memory!

MALLET Philippe
MALLET Philippe
1 year ago

Thank you for this รฉlรฉgant and powerfull syntax Matthew ๐Ÿ™‚

Marcel Lehmann
1 year ago

Interesting solution, good job.
I had not yet needed, but now I have to think about it fortunately not.

Important: With a collection as a basis, this works great, but if we had SharePoint as a source, we would run into the delegation problem with the Distinct function. (if more entries)

sonam
sonam
9 months ago

Hi, Matthew. I usually follow your solution. It’s really helpful. Recently, I followed this solution to remove duplicates from the collection, but I am not satisfied.

Here is my collection, i.e., CollCountry. I collect data from an Excel data table, which has some duplicate values.

Then I applied the following formula to a button to create another collection by removing the duplicates.

And here is the result:

OnSelect = ClearCollect(mySolution, ForAll(Distinct(CollCountry, ThisRecord), Result))
Result of remove duplicates.png
Louis
Louis
4 months ago

Am I correct in assuming then that if a collection has more than 5 columns this will not work?

I am getting “Invalid argument type. Name isn’t valid. ‘Result’ isn’t recognized” when using this solution…code as follows:

ClearCollect(
  col_Collection1,
  ForAll(
    Distinct(col_Collection2,
    ThisRecord),
    Result))

Louis
Louis
4 months ago

looks like ‘Result’ is not valid anymore….using ‘Value’ seems to work instead…I’ll test some more!

Craig Stewart
Craig Stewart
7 months ago

So today I was working on gallery selections filtering another gallery and needed to get rid of duplicates. I fiddled a bit, tried a few things. Then I thought “You know who will know how to this? Matthew Devaney” I was so close in getting to what I wanted- but this guide got me through the final piece. Thanks Matthew ๐Ÿ™‚

Last edited 7 months ago by Craig Stewart
Daniel Kerridge
Daniel Kerridge
4 months ago

Hi Matt,

I had to change “Result” to “Value” to get this code to work for me.

Working Code:

//Create a collection
ClearCollect(colVehicles,
  {Year: 2020, Make: “Ford”, Model: “F150”},
  {Year: 2018, Make: “Chevy”, Model: “Silverado” },
  {Year: 2020, Make: “Ford”, Model: “F150” },
  {Year: 2020, Make: “Ford”, Model: “F150”},
  {Year: 2017, Make: “Nissan”, Model: “Frontier”},
  {Year: 2016, Make: “GM”, Model: “Yukon”},
  {Year: 2016, Make: “GM”, Model: “Yukon”}
);

//Duplicate removal code
ClearCollect(mySolution, ForAll(Distinct(colVehicles, ThisRecord), Value));

Cheers!

Tim
Tim
4 months ago

Hello Matthew,
Hmm weird when i do this part or at least i think i do
I only get no results instead of all the names i want to see except duplicated ones
What do i wrong?

ForAll( Distinct( ColAllData; CUSTOMER );
LookUp( ColAllData; Trim(TextInput1_8.Text) in “field_7” )
)

For example i have 4 Bruno Guide and a few Bruno with other last names
But i get nothing
?

New Bitmap image.bmp
Kirk
Kirk
2 months ago

Any idea why I’m getting these errors (screenshot shows my formula and errors) when I use your syntax exactly?…
“The function ‘ForAll’ has some invalid arguments.”
“Name isn’t valid. ‘Result’ isn’t recognized.”
“The function ‘ClearCollect’ has some invalid arguments.”
“Invalid argument type.”

Screenshot 2023-07-20 130850.png