How to get unique value from a column in a csv file

 You can extract the unique values from a CSV column in several ways depending on the tools you prefer. Here are the most common methods:

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🐍 1. Python (pandas)

If you have Python installed, this is the easiest:

import pandas as pd

# Read CSV file
df = pd.read_csv("yourfile.csv")

# Replace 'ColumnName' with the exact column header
unique_values = df["ColumnName"].unique()

# Print as a list
print(unique_values)

Save to another file:

pd.Series(unique_values).to_csv("unique_values.csv", index=False)

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🖥️ 2. Command line (Linux / macOS)

If the CSV is simple (no embedded commas/quotes):

cut -d',' -f2 yourfile.csv | sort -u

• -d',' → delimiter is comma

• -f2 → second column (change to your column number)

• sort -u → sort and remove duplicates.

⚠️ If your CSV has quoted fields with commas inside, use a CSV-aware tool like csvkit:

csvcut -c "ColumnName" yourfile.csv | tail -n +2 | sort -u

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📊 3. Excel / Google Sheets

1. Open the CSV in Excel/Sheets.

2. Select the column.

3. Go to Data → Remove Duplicates (Excel) or Data → Data cleanup → Remove duplicates (Google Sheets).

4. The remaining values are the unique ones.

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✅ Tip

• Always check the exact column header (case-sensitive) when using pandas or csvcut.

• For very large files, command-line tools (csvkit, awk) are usually fastest.

Choose the method that fits the tools you already use.