How can I use Google Sheets to find the first occurrence of a specific value in a column?

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Google Sheets is a powerful tool that allows users to organize and analyze data in a spreadsheet format. One useful feature of Google Sheets is the ability to find the first occurrence of a specific value in a column. This can be done by using the built-in function “MATCH”, which searches for a value in a given range and returns the position of the first occurrence. By using this function, users can easily locate the first instance of a specific value in a column, making data analysis more efficient and accurate. This feature is particularly helpful for large datasets where manually searching for a value may be time-consuming. Overall, utilizing Google Sheets to find the first occurrence of a specific value in a column is a simple and effective way to manage and analyze data.

Google Sheets: Find First Occurrence of Value in Column

You can use the following formula to find the first occurrence of a value in a column in Google Sheets:

=COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)=1

This particular formula returns a value of TRUE for the first occurrence of each unique value in column A and a value of FALSE for all other values.

If you would like to return a 1 or 0 instead, you can use the following formula:

=(COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)=1)+0

The following example shows how to use these formulas in practice.

Example: Find First Occurrence of a Value in Column in Google Sheets

Suppose we have the following dataset that contains information about points scored by basketball players on various teams:

We can type the following formula into cell C2 to return either TRUE or FALSE to indicate whether or not the team name in cell A2 is the first occurrence of that team name in column A:

=COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)=1

We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column C:

The formula returns either TRUE or FALSE to indicate whether or not the corresponding team name in column A is the first occurrence of that team name.

For example:

  • The value of “Rockets” in row 2 receives a value of TRUE since it is the first occurrence of that team name in column A.
  • The value of “Spurs” in row 3 receives a value of TRUE since it is the first occurrence of that team name in column A.
  • The value of “Spurs” in row 4 receives a value of FALSE since it is not the first occurrence of that team name in column A.

And so on.

=(COUNTIF($A$2:$A2,$A2)=1)+0

You can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column C:

Excel find first occurrence of value in column

Now the formula returns either 1 or 0 to indicate whether or not the corresponding team name in column A is the first occurrence of that team name.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Google Sheets:

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