Unique values on multiple columns

Question

I need to get a list of unique values from few columns. The data looks like this:

I tried using Unique but it only gives me copy of the list. These 4 lists are already unique values found in another sheet. If getting unique from 4 columns is impossible, how would I go around combining these 4 columns but instead merging data from a row to 1 cell I'd like to append that one column to have one city per row (so add more rows). Another idea I had - pulling data from multiple sheets into 1 row, but as it's an automated report, number of towns in each sheet changes every time, so can't use specific cell locations.

Answer 1

You can use the following formula (entered into cell F2 and assuming your data is in range A1:D5 )

=IFERROR(LOOKUP("zzzzz",INDEX(IF(COUNTIF(F$1:F1,A$2:D$5),0,A$2:D$5),MIN(IF(COUNTIF(F$1:F1,A$2:D$5),"",ROW(A$2:D$5)-ROW(A$2)+1)),0)),"")

As it is an array formula it needs to be entered using Ctrl + Shift + Enter and copied down until there are blank cells

Answer 2

It does not work in my case, in calc (LibreOffice) that i have exactly the same problem. To extract unique values from multiple columns with text, with blank spaces. I have tried a lot of formulas with no success...

What worked for me - I dont know why this worked for me!
A, B, and C contains text from the 2nd row and onwards. Formula is put on D2 cell as Array formula.

=IFERROR(IFERROR(IFERROR(
INDEX($A$2:$A$20; MATCH(0; COUNTIF($D$1:D1; $A$2:$A$20)+($A$2:$A$20=""); 0)); 
INDEX($B$2:$B$7; MATCH(0; COUNTIF($D$1:D1; $B$2:$B$7)+($B$2:$B$7=""); 0))
); 
INDEX($C$2:$C$12; MATCH(0; COUNTIF($D$1:D1; $C$2:$C$12)+($C$2:$C$12=""); 0))
); 
"")

Found here