Compare Excel rows within a table - excel

Question

I have an Excel table (which is formatted as table and named as "table 1"). So the table columns are named like #LastName, #FirstName and so on.
This table contains information on when people attended a seminar. They're able to attend a number of seminars but also can attend a single seminar twice or more often.
I now want to find out, when the last date was , when a person attended a special seminar.
Lets give an Example:
Table:
#FirstName #LastName #Seminar #Date
Frank Mayer Workshop 1 2017/01/15
Frank Mayer Workshop 2 2019/05/27
Sabine Adams Workshop 1 2017/01/15
Volker Mueller Workshop 1 2017/01/15
Frank Mayer Workshop 1 2018/04/23
As you can see from this simple example, Frank Mayer attended Workshop 1 2x. All others attended each Workshop only once.
Goal is to have a list of Name, Workshop and last attendance. So the final list should look like:
#FirstName #LastName #Seminar #Date
Frank Mayer Workshop 2 2019/05/27
Sabine Adams Workshop 1 2017/01/15
Volker Mueller Workshop 1 2017/01/15
Frank Mayer Workshop 1 2018/04/23
I really have no idea how to solve this with Excel Formulas, since there is not only comparing dates, but also find double entry which differ only with the date. If possible, I'd like to NOT use VBA programming.
Do you guys have any idea? My table has 1500 lines, so doing that by hand is not an option...
Maybe there is a way to create a new sheet or table with the results?
Best Regards
Olaf

Answer 1

A more dynamic approach
(i.e. you would not have to go through the entire process each time more data is added.)
Add a helper column with name+last name+workshop per cell named e.g. "ID". Use either Concatenate or =Name & Lastname & Workshop to consolidate
Create a pivot table from your table with the following field-list:Rows: Add "ID" , Values: Add "Date" and change the value field settings (right-click) to "Max of Date"
Remember to refresh the pivot table when adding new data or change the pivot settings to update automatically when opening the workbook.

Answer 2

There are a thousand and one ways to do this and you might be surprised how easy it is to do manually too.
If you're reducing the table, meaning, removing rows from the table; then you could...
Add a helper column which concatenates the first name, last name, and workshop.
Then sort by this column and by date decreasing values.
Remove duplicates based only in the helper column.
Remove the helper column
Sort as desired
The trick is the sort. Sorting the helper column groups the repeat names per workshop and including the date by decreasing values ensures the most recent is at the top. So when you remove duplicates, the first occurrence will be the most recent and will be retained but subsequent entries well be removed.

Answer 3

I'd advise you to use the "Subtotals" Excel feature, choosing the Max function.
You might encouter problems as you need to give a single column in the first entry of the dialog, but this can be solved, creating an extra column, appending first name and last name, and basing your that (hidden) column (sorry for the Dutch, I don't have an English Excel):
The corresponding entries for the other columns can be found using basic search formulas (Match, VLookup, ...).

Answer 4

I would recommend using PIVOT as the simplest and fastest way: