Keep the first occurrence
- Input or situation
- apple pear apple
- Result
- apple pear
The first apple remains in its original position; the later identical line is removed.
Text
Remove duplicate lines from a list
Paste a list and get it back with every repeat removed, keeping the first occurrence of each line. Useful for email lists, keyword exports and log files.
Runs in your browser — your input is not uploaded to ToolsNow.
Your list
0 chars0 words0 lines
Unique lines
0 chars0 words0 lines
How to use
- Paste your list. One item per line.
- Choose how to compare. Turn off case sensitivity to treat "Apple" and "apple" as the same line. Leading and trailing spaces are ignored when comparing.
- Read the count and copy. The tool reports how many lines it removed and how many unique ones remain.
Questions
Which duplicate is kept?
The first occurrence, in the original order. The remaining lines stay in the order you pasted them unless you switch on sorting.
Are "Apple" and "apple" duplicates?
Only if you turn off case sensitivity. By default they are treated as different lines.
What about lines that differ only in spacing?
Leading and trailing whitespace is ignored when comparing, so " apple" and "apple" are treated as the same line. Differences in the middle of a line still count as different.
Is there a size limit?
Only your device’s memory. Lists of tens of thousands of lines are fine on a normal laptop, because the work happens locally rather than being uploaded.
Examples and checks
Deduplication is useful for repeated list entries, but the comparison rules decide which entries count as identical. Review the removed count before using a cleaned mailing list, reference list or export.
Check letter case
- Input or situation
- Apple apple
- Result
- Two entries when case-sensitive; one when case is ignored.
Use case-sensitive comparison for identifiers where capitalization matters. Display names may need a different rule.
Before you use the result
- Leading and trailing spaces are ignored for comparison, but internal spacing still matters.
- Similar-looking entries can refer to different people or records. The tool compares text; it does not verify identities or decide which record is correct.
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