Finding duplicates A.B.C. <---> ABC

[Ugo DI LUCA]

In order to prevent users to create new account for existing clients, I already had "installed" a find duplicate using a seljoin Clients:g_name :Clients:name.

But obviously, ABC & A.B.C aren't duplicate, nor FA.MI.LY & FAMILY.

My first thought was of using a calculation for a new "multikey" global field, using a looping script to set the multikey with an "Insert Calc result"...

But as it could also be F.AMILY, FA.MILY, FAM.ILY, FA.M.LY,..., I'm sure there is another way I cannot think about.

1. Is there another way ?

2. What would be this calculation like - I'm stuck with Left("."...) ?

Thank you very much.

[Lee Smith]

Hi Ugo,

If it is only the periods "." that are the problem, why not incorporate a substitute(yourfield, ".", "") into the find for duplicate. You could also gang up this to include other problem characters such as "-"

Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(yourfield, ".", ""), "-",""), ",","")

HTH

Lee

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Hi Lee,

After some thinking, I came up with that too.You're right for the "-" as this is also a parameter. Thanks a lot.

Here is what I have in mind right now.

Here are the fields in Clients

n_Name

g_Name

c_NameAbbrev = Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(n_Name, ".", ""), "-",""), ",","")

c_gNameAbbrev = Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(g_Name, ".", ""), "-",""), ",","")

New relationship would be

When a new entry is processed, using the "New Entry Layout" with global fields, the script search for duplicates using relationship Clients:c_gNameAbbrev::Clients:c_NameAbbrev instead of g_Name:Name that wasn't reliable.