Need help writing a script to find duplicate values...

[eric.heggie]

I am working on taking an address and identifying duplicates in the database I have created. I want to identify duplicates and then condense the differing information in multiple other value fields into one common record. Anyone have any scripts that do something similar to this?

[Søren Dyhr]

You're hopefully aware you are giving way to little to suggest a strategy for this. Do you think you just could call an audition to bring a long list of more or less daft approaches to reach your goal ... there is no just one way to slice and dice duplication problems but many, all of them wear their own tradeoffs.

Should we really guess until we get green in the face, or would you let us a little in on your almost random request.

--sd

[eric.heggie]

Point well taken.

I have a voter file that has numerous voters at the same address throughout the database. To better organize it I need to create a script that finds any duplicate addresses in the database, then combines the personal information from multiple records into one record.

So for example to do it manually I would do a search for duplicates by address, then sort by address. I would then manually copy over from other records multiple fields of info onto one record. I would then need to delete the records that I copied from. I would then go to the next set of duplicate addresses.

I have never had to write a script this complex so I feel like a deer in headlights.

Edited January 27, 2008 by Guest

[comment]

This part is not clear:

I would then manually copy over from other records multiple fields of info onto one record.

It sounds like you want to move multiple voters at the same address into a single record. I am not sure that's such a good idea. You should probably create a new table of unique addresses, and keep the existing voter records as a related table.

[_henry_]

Hello Eric,

Have you tried the method of "Identifying duplicate values using a self-join relationship"? You can search it in FM's help for more information.