Highlight rows with different colors by groups of duplicates - excel

Question

How do I highlight rows with different colors by groups of duplicates?
I don't care about which colors are used per se, I just want the duplicate rows one color, and the next set of duplicates another color.
For example, if I wanted the '1s' green, the '2s' blue and so on. It goes up to 120 in my column.
Thank you.

Answer 1

The solution by Gowtham is only specific to numbers and uses VBA. You can use the following workaround that works with any type of data and doesn't need VBA.
We could use another column that generates a unique value for all the duplicates using a formula and use the "Conditional Formatting > Color Scales" for that column. Screenshot below.
The formula that you can use is
"=ROW(INDEX(A$2:A$12,MATCH(A2,A$2:A$12,0)))"
In the above formula, A$2:A$12 is the range that we want to search for duplicates.
The formula basically searches for the first instance of the duplicate value in the given range and inputs the row number of that first instance.
P.S: In the above formula, the range "A$2:A$12" is a fixed range, using the above formula in a Table is much simpler as a Table Range is dynamic
One other benefit of using Table is that we can even sort the data to group the duplicate values together
=ROW(INDEX([Column1],MATCH(A2,[Column1],0)))

Answer 2

Try out this simple code and modify it per your needs. Its quite self explanatory,
Sub dupColors()
Dim i As Long, cIndex As Long
cIndex = 3
Cells(1, 1).Interior.ColorIndex = cIndex
For i = 1 To Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
If Cells(i, 1) = Cells(i + 1, 1) Then
Cells(i + 1, 1).Interior.ColorIndex = cIndex
Else
If Cells(i + 1, 1) <> "" Then
cIndex = cIndex + 1
Cells(i + 1, 1).Interior.ColorIndex = cIndex
End If
End If
Next i
End Sub

Answer 3

Gowtham's answer is great, and I wouldn't have figured out the below without them! I had the same need for unique color assignment, however, I needed more variance than the 56 colors that colorindex provides, so I slightly modified Gowtham's code to provide a bit more variability by using RandBetween along with RGB to create randomized colors via randomized red, blue, and green values.
I kept the color range between 120 & 255, since some of the lower values could result in cells that were too dark to read, but you can certainly customize to your liking. The code below can certainly be improved upon, as I'm no expert, but it was able to obtain the 100+ colors needed.
EDIT: I will add that there is a possibility that RGB values could overlap. I just needed to color-code for visual aid; but if you will need strict unique color values, this code will not guarantee that.
Dim rCount, RandCol1, RandCol2, RandCol3, i As Long
rCount = Sheet1.Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
For i = 1 To rCount
If Sheet1.Cells(i, 1) = Sheet1.Cells(i + 1, 1) Then
Sheet1.Cells(i + 1, 1).Interior.Color = RGB(RandCol1, RandCol2, RandCol3)
Else
If Sheet1.Cells(i + 1, 1) <> "" Then
RandCol1 = WorksheetFunction.RandBetween(120, 255)
RandCol2 = WorksheetFunction.RandBetween(120, 255)
RandCol3 = WorksheetFunction.RandBetween(120, 255)
Sheet1.Cells(i + 1, 1).Interior.Color = RGB(RandCol1, RandCol2, RandCol3)
End If
End If
Next i

Answer 4

I found this VBA in https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/3772-excel-highlight-duplicate-values-in-different-colors.html:
Sub ColorCompanyDuplicates()
'Updateby Extendoffice
Dim xRg As Range
Dim xTxt As String
Dim xCell As Range
Dim xChar As String
Dim xCellPre As Range
Dim xCIndex As Long
Dim xCol As Collection
Dim I As Long
On Error Resume Next
If ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Count > 1 Then
xTxt = ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.AddressLocal
Else
xTxt = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.AddressLocal
End If
Set xRg = Application.InputBox("please select the data range:", "Kutools for Excel", xTxt, , , , , 8)
If xRg Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
xCIndex = 2
Set xCol = New Collection
For Each xCell In xRg
On Error Resume Next
xCol.Add xCell, xCell.Text
If Err.Number = 457 Then
xCIndex = xCIndex + 1
Set xCellPre = xCol(xCell.Text)
If xCellPre.Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone Then xCellPre.Interior.ColorIndex = xCIndex
xCell.Interior.ColorIndex = xCellPre.Interior.ColorIndex
ElseIf Err.Number = 9 Then
MsgBox "Too many duplicate companies!", vbCritical, "Kutools for Excel"
Exit Sub
End If
On Error GoTo 0
Next
End Sub

Answer 5

Found this code for excel VBA that worked to organize a large number of duplicates in different colors.
`Sub ColorCompanyDuplicates()
'Updateby Extendoffice 20171222
Dim xRg As Range
Dim xTxt As String
Dim xCell As Range
Dim xChar As String
Dim xCellPre As Range
Dim xCIndex As Long
Dim xCol As Collection
Dim I As Long
On Error Resume Next
If ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Count > 1 Then
xTxt = ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.AddressLocal
Else
xTxt = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.AddressLocal
End If
Set xRg = Range("M10:P10010")
If xRg Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
xCIndex = 2
Set xCol = New Collection
For Each xCell In xRg
On Error Resume Next
If xCell.Value <> "" Then
xCol.Add xCell, xCell.Text
If Err.Number = 457 Then
xCIndex = xCIndex + 1
Set xCellPre = xCol(xCell.Text)
If xCellPre.Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone Then xCellPre.Interior.Color = RGB(xRed, xGreen, xBlue)
xCell.Interior.Color = xCellPre.Interior.Color
ElseIf Err.Number = 9 Then
MsgBox "Too many duplicate companies!", vbCritical, "Kutools for Excel"
Exit Sub
End If
xRed = Application.WorksheetFunction.RandBetween(0, 255)
xGreen = Application.WorksheetFunction.RandBetween(0, 255)
xBlue = Application.WorksheetFunction.RandBetween(0, 255)
On Error GoTo 0
End If
Next
End Sub