Question: Deleting duplicates (x 2)

Question

Love the iWork 09 upgrade, but didn't see the answer to this in the manual. In Excel, you can find duplicates and essentially delete them by using Advanced Filter to only show unique records. Can you do the same thing in Numbers 09?
To be specific, there are two types of things I want to be able to do:
1. Convert a column that includes A,B,B,C,D,D,D,E to simply A,B,C,D,E
2. Convert a column that includes A,B,B,C,D,D,D,E to simply A,C,E
I'm not very good with formulas, so if anybody has a suggestion on how to do either or both of those, it would be really.

Answer 1

I just discovered that the OP was not wanting a way to filter on rows but wanted two ways to filter.
It's what this new script offers.
--[SCRIPT filter on column]
Enregistrer le script en tant qu'Application ou Progiciel : filter on column.app
déplacer l'application créée dans le dossier
<VolumeDeDémarrage>:Users:<votreCompte>:Library:Scripts:Applications:Numbers:
Il vous faudra peut-être créer le dossier Numbers et peut-être même le dossier Applications.
Sélectionnez une cellule de la colonne à prendre en compte.
menu Scripts > Numbers > filter on column
Vous pouvez choisir de
• conserver un élément de chaque groupe de doublons
• supprimer tous les éléments de chaque groupe de doublons.
L'aide du Finder explique:
L'Utilitaire AppleScript permet d'activer le Menu des scripts :
Ouvrez l'Utilitaire AppleScript situé dans le dossier Applications/AppleScript.
Cochez la case "Afficher le menu des scripts dans la barre de menus".
+++++++
Save the script as an Application or an Application Bundle: filter on column.app
Move the newly created application into the folder:
<startup Volume>:Users:<yourAccount>:Library:Scripts:Applications:Numbers:
Maybe you would have to create the folder Numbers and even the folder Applications by yourself.
Select a cell in the column to scan.
menu Scripts > Numbers > filter on column
You may choose to
• keep one item of each group of duplicates
• remove every items of each group of duplicates.
The Finder's Help explains:
To make the Script menu appear:
Open the AppleScript utility located in Applications/AppleScript.
Select the "Show Script Menu in menu bar" checkbox.
Based on a jaxjason's script
Yvan KOENIG (Vallauris FRANCE)
30 janvier 2009
--=====
property theApp : "Numbers"
(* A property useful to fasten the use of list *)
property theKeys : {}
--=====
on run
my nettoie()
if my parleFrancais() then
set keep_one to "En garder un"
set keepOne to display dialog "Que faire des doublons ?" buttons {"Annuler", "Les supprimer", keep_one} default button keep_one
else
set keep_one to "Keep one"
set keepOne to display dialog "What to do with duplicates ?" buttons {"Cancel", "Hide all", keep_one} default button keep_one
end if
set keepOne to button returned of keepOne is keep_one
set {current_Range, current_table, current_Sheet, current_Doc} to my getSelection()
if my parleFrancais() then
if current_Range is missing value then error "Aucune feuille ne contient une table sélectionnée."
else
if current_Range is missing value then error "No sheet has a selected table."
end if
set twoNames to my decoupe(current_Range, ":")
set {colNum1, rowNum1} to my decipher(item 1 of twoNames)
tell application "Numbers"
tell document current_Doc to tell sheet current_Sheet to tell table current_table to tell column colNum1
set cor to count of rows
if keepOne then (*
Here we keep one item of every group of duplicates *)
repeat with j from cor to 1 by -1
set m to value of cell j
if m is in my theKeys then
remove row j
else
copy m to end of my theKeys
end if
end repeat -- j
else (*
Here we remove every items of each group of duplicates *)
set {bef, aft} to {"@$¥", "¥$@"} (*
With such separators, we may be sure that there will not be a wrong check upon availability *)
repeat with j from 1 to cor
copy bef & value of cell j & aft to end of my theKeys
end repeat -- j
Here we know that text item delimiters where set to "" by the decoupe() handler *)
set theKeys to my theKeys as text (*
the use of 'my' is required to fasten the use of lists but is useless for text items ! *)
repeat with i from cor to 1 by -1 (*
As we scan the table backwards (starting from the bottom row),
we may remove a row immediately when I discover that it is a duplicate *)
if (count of my decoupe(theKeys, bef & value of cell i & aft)) > 2 then remove row i
end repeat -- i
end if -- keepOne
end tell -- column of table of sheet of document
end tell -- application
my nettoie()
end run
--=====
on getSelection()
local _, theRange, theTable, theSheet, theDoc, errMsg, errNum
tell application "Numbers" to tell document 1
repeat with i from 1 to the count of sheets
tell sheet i
set x to the count of tables
if x > 0 then
repeat with y from 1 to x
(* Open a trap to catch the selection range.
The structure of this item
«class » "A2:M25" of table "Tableau 1" of sheet "Feuille 1" of document "Sans titre"
can't be coerced as text.
So, when the instruction (selection range of table y) as text
receive 'missing value' it behaves correctly and the lup continue.
But, when it receive THE true selection range, it generates an error
whose message is errMsg and number is errNum.
We grab them just after the on error instruction *)
try
(selection range of table y) as text
on error errMsg number errNum (*
As we reached THE selection range, we are here.
We grab the errMsg here. In French it looks like:
Impossible de transformer «class » "A2:M25" of «class NmTb» "Tableau 1" of «class NmSh» "Feuille 1" of document "Sans titre" of application "Numbers" en type string.
The handler cuts it in pieces using quotes as delimiters.
item 1 (_) "Impossible de transformer «class » "
item 2 (theRange) "A2:M25"
item 3 (_) " of «class NmTb» "
item 4 (theTable) "Tableau 1"
item 5 (_) " of «class NmSh» "
item 6 (theSheet) "Feuille 1"
item 7 (_) " of document "
item 8 (theDoc) "Sans titre"
item 9 ( I drop it ) " of application "
item 10 ( I drop it ) "Numbers"
item 11 (I drop it ) " en type string."
I grab these items in the list
{_, theRange, _, theTable, _, theSheet, _, theDoc}
Yes, underscore is a valid name of variable.
I often uses it when I want to drop something.
An alternate way would be to code:
set ll to my decoupe(errMsg, quote)
set theRange to item 2 of ll
set theTable to item 4 of ll
set theSheet to item 8 of ll
set theDoc to item 10 of ll
it works exactly the same but it's not so elegant.
set {_, theRange, _, theTable, _, theSheet, _, theDoc} to my decoupe(errMsg, quote)
return {theRange, theTable, theSheet, theDoc} (*
as we grabbed the interesting datas, we exit sending them to caller *)
end try
end repeat -- y
end if -- x>0
end tell -- sheet
end repeat -- i
end tell -- document
return {missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value}
end getSelection
--=====
on decipher(n)
local colNum, rowNum, letters
set letters to "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
if (character 2 of n) as text > "9" then
set colNum to (offset of (character 1 of n) in letters) * 64 + (offset of (character 2 of n) in letters)
set rowNum to (text 3 thru -1 of n) as integer
else
set colNum to offset of (character 1 of n) in letters
set rowNum to (text 2 thru -1 of n) as integer
end if
return {colNum, rowNum}
end decipher
--=====
on decoupe(t, d)
local l
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d
set l to text items of t
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return l
end decoupe
--=====
on parleFrancais()
local z
try
tell application theApp to set z to localized string "Cancel"
on error
set z to "Cancel"
end try
return (z = "Annuler")
end parleFrancais
--=====
on nettoie()
(* no need to store these lists in the script forever *)
set theKeys to {}
end nettoie
--=====
--[/SCRIPT]
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 30 janvier 2009 16:18:49)