find duplicates

[nickelsto]

Newbie here, I read in the help file that typing ! in the field when running a find will find all duplicates of that field. It has not worked. Instead almost all of the records are returned. Obviously I want to limit the find to only exact duplicates to get rid of them. I know this must be easy, but I am not finding it. Can someone help?

[Mike D.]

The ! is used to find duplicates, but you must be careful which field you are using it in. The results returned will show all records that have any value in it more than once, for example a personnel list that has multiple Smith's. Try to limit the duplicate find to a field where the values are more unique.

If you provide more details of what you are trying to do, we can give you a better answer.

HTH, Mike

[cjaeger]

how about a search for "duplicate" in this forum?

there must be almost 50 threads dealing with finding (and removing) duplicate entries. maybe search for "sync", too.

How about a quick trip to the sample files?

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but here a quick tip:

make a calc field:

Replace(field1&field2&field3&....;" ";"")

and do a search there.

for number fields, add a NumtoText(field), for date fields a Datetotext(). if you have returns in your fields, filter them too (replace(Replace(field1&field2&field3&....;" ";"");"q|";"")

obviously, do NOT include number fields unless you suspect duplicates there. search them manually with "!".

[nickelsto]

thanks for your help. I did a search and found this thread ( http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB16&Number=55070&fpart=&PHPSESSID= ) to be helpful.

Thanks again.