The error comes from an incorrect syntax.

Should be =IF(A2=A1,"same","not same")

Better formula would be this one from Chip Pearson.

=IF(COUNTIF($A$1:$A$300,A1)1,"Duplicate","Not Duplicate")

For more on duplicates management see Chip's site at

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/duplicat.htm


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006 12:56:02 -0800, RichN
wrote:

I have a long list of items in Excel. I have been trying to use the IF
statements to compare items in the list, so that I might delete the repeated
items.

Please note: the whole list is text. There are no numbers.

I have been trying to use

=IF(A1=A2),"same","not same"

but keep getting an error.

Please help, or perhaps suggest another function to use?