Find duplicate items in a list

Paste a list and get only items that appear two or more times back. Each duplicate value is shown once (not every occurrence) so you see *which* items repeat, not every copy of them. Singletons are dropped entirely.

Input
Ready
Output
Live

Repeat finder with first-occurrence display

The tool tallies every item's occurrence count, then outputs the first-seen instance of any item whose count is 2+. Items that appear once are excluded. The output is a deduplicated list of "things that repeat", not every copy of them - if `Alice` appears 3 times, she appears once in the output.

Case sensitive (off by default) and Trim (on by default) control the tally. Off/on collapses case and whitespace variants so they count together - `Apple` + `apple` counts as 2 occurrences of one item, and that item appears in the output. Turn either on to treat variants as distinct.

Order is the order of first appearance in the input. If `Alice` was seen first at line 1 and `Bob` first at line 2, `Alice` comes before `Bob` in the output - regardless of how many times each repeats.

How to use find duplicate items in a list

  1. 1Paste your list into the input panel
  2. 2Toggle Case sensitive and Trim to control how items are compared
  3. 3Output shows each duplicated value once, in order of first appearance
  4. 4Singletons (items appearing exactly once) are dropped
  5. 5For items that appear exactly once instead, use Find unique items

Keyboard shortcuts

Drive ListShift without touching the mouse.

Shortcut Action
Ctrl ZUndo last input change
Ctrl Shift ZRedo
Ctrl Shift EnterToggle fullscreen focus on the editor
EscExit fullscreen
Ctrl KOpen the command palette to jump to any tool
Ctrl SSave current pipeline draft Plus
Ctrl PRun a saved pipeline Plus

What this tool actually does

Count, filter by count ≥ 2, display first-occurrence.

Emits each duplicate value once

If `Alice` appears 5 times, the output has `Alice` once. The tool reports *which items repeat*, not *every repetition*. For actual deduplication (keep one copy of every item), use Dedupe.

First-occurrence order

Items are emitted in the order they first appeared in the input. A value that first repeats near the end of the input shows up at the end of the output.

Case-insensitive comparison by default

With Case sensitive off, `Apple` and `apple` count together for the 2+ threshold. On, each casing is a distinct item - and has to appear 2+ times in exactly that casing to qualify as a duplicate.

Trim-aware by default

Trim on strips whitespace before tallying - `Apple` and ` Apple ` count together. Off treats them as distinct items that each need their own 2+ count to qualify.

Blank lines skipped

Empty lines are not counted and never appear in the output, regardless of how many of them there are.

Worked example

`Alice` and `Bob` each appear twice - both in output once. `Charlie` and `Dave` are singletons - dropped.

Input
Alice
Bob
Alice
Charlie
Bob
Dave
Output
Alice
Bob

Settings reference

How each option shapes the output using the sample above.

Setting What it does Effect on the sample
Case sensitive: off (default) `Apple` and `apple` tally together `Alice` and `Bob` appear regardless of casing in source
Case sensitive: on Each casing is distinct - must repeat in its own form Only exact-case repeats qualify
Trim: on (default) Whitespace-variant items tally together `Alice` and ` Alice ` count as the same item
Trim: off Whitespace-variant items distinct `Alice` vs ` Alice ` need their own 2+ count to qualify

FAQ

Does the output show every copy of a duplicated item?
No. Each duplicated value appears once. If `Alice` is in the input 5 times, `Alice` is in the output once. The tool answers "which items repeat?" rather than "give me every repeated line".
How is this different from Dedupe?
Dedupe keeps the first copy of every item - including singletons. This tool keeps only items that repeat, and drops everything else. Use Dedupe to get a unique set; use this to find which items need attention because they repeat.
What is the opposite of this?
Find unique items - keeps only items that appear exactly once. Together with this tool, the two partition your list: repeats go here, singletons go there, blanks go nowhere.
Does it show the count of each duplicate?
No. For counts, use Count list item occurrences - same tally logic but outputs `count<tab>item` per line for every unique value.
Are items sorted alphabetically in the output?
No - they appear in first-occurrence order from your input. For alphabetical, chain Sort after.