---
title: "Find what looks wrong in a spreadsheet."
description: "Investigate duplicates, missing values, and odd totals."
author: Graham
date: 2026-09-05
url: https://powerofai.ca/use-cases/spreadsheet-check
---

# Find what looks wrong in a spreadsheet.

Investigate duplicates, missing values, and odd totals.

## Why try this?

AI with file-analysis tools can help inspect a table and explain its checks.

## What to bring

A permitted copy of a spreadsheet, column definitions, and what a correct row should look like.

## Your starting request

Inspect this copy of my spreadsheet for duplicate IDs, missing required values, inconsistent date formats, and totals that do not reconcile. Explain each check and list affected sheet names and row numbers. Preserve the original file. Distinguish errors from unusual but possible values. Do not fill missing data without asking.

## Illustrative result

This is an authored teaching example, not a live model response.

A findings table with locations, reasons, and proposed fixes, plus a description of checks performed.

## Then make it fit

Show the formula or code used for each check. Apply only the fixes I approve to a new copy and summarize the changed cells.

## Before you use it

Recalculate important totals independently and inspect a sample of flagged and unflagged rows. Confirm row numbering and hidden sheets.

## What you are learning

Ask for a checkable trail, including the rows that support a finding.

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