Marking the first of duplicate records

[carta]

My data consists of street names, like "Kingston Hwy" or "Nelson Rd." There can be multiple records with the same street name; for example, 36 records with "Kingston Hwy."

I need to keep the database unsorted so that its original order is preserved. (I could create a new field and fill it incrementally so that the database could be resorted using the new field to return it to its original order.)

Can I create a new field called UNIQUE that will mark (with a character) every unique street name? For duplicates, it's okay for it to mark the first record among the duplicates.

So for the 36 records of "Kingston Hwy," one record would be populated with an X in the UNIQUE field.

How can I do this?

[Fitch]

Basically you want to do this:

http://filemaker.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/filemaker.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3441

(Although I'd use a variable rather than a global.)

Don't worry about the sort order, you can always un-sort the records when you're done.

[carta]

Thank you, Tom. That did the trick. It was my first time working with scripting and boy oh boy did I ever learn a thing or two. I can now see that the script for finding duplicates will also help me in indexing map street names.

That problem is one where there are multiple Main Streets, each with a different grid coordinate (A3, B3, B4...etc.). I'd like to consolidate those into one entry, such as Main St...A3, B3, B4.

I'm going to explore that with ScriptMaker.

Thanks again.