I haven't seen this noted anywhere yet, but this is the first time I'm posting anything about it. I am on the Insider edition of 365, but in the version I have giving a Data Validation list a list of values that contains duplicates, Data Validation automatically provides a Unique List of the values in the list, so in your first example there was no need for the UNIQUE function. There is an option to Ignore Blanks, which is great, but so far no option to sort the list, so unfortunately you still need to use SORT to get a sorted list, and as long as you're there you might as well use UNIQUE as well!
thank you, just one thing I learned in other tutorials using unique to make a drop down list is to click where the unique formula and add the # sign to make it dynamic.
