How do I get a list of distinct values from a column, with duplicates removed?

UNIQUE scans a range and returns each distinct value exactly once, in the order it first appears, spilling the results down the column below the formula. =UNIQUE(A2:A100) turns a column with repeated entries, like a list of customer names appearing once per order, into a single list with each name shown only once.

Pairing UNIQUE with COUNTA gives you a distinct count: =COUNTA(UNIQUE(A2:A100)) counts how many different values exist in the range, which is a different question than COUNTA(A2:A100) alone, which counts every row including repeats.