Preventing Duplicates SQL Method

by Matt Petrowsky

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The last time I covered the topic of dealing with duplicates was 2009. This was pre FileMaker 12.

The methods covered in that video still apply to today's solutions in terms of usability. However, the newer content within this video is optimized for the updated ways of doing things in FileMaker 12.

You're always able to use FileMaker's own internal logic to flag existing duplicates within a solution. This is what was being done in the previous method. Looking through a relationship and using "match criteria" was how we established all duplicates beyond the the first original record. We then used validation to cause user notification.

In this newer method of preventing duplicates, we can stop the record from ever being added. It's a very simple system.

Of course, you can always design a system which uses global fields within a dedicated table to "preempt" your actual write to the database. But this method, as well as the earlier method, requires more "cruft" being added to the Relationship Graph.

This newer method requires only a single script and some well placed script triggers.