asked on

remove all but ONE duplicate entry

by default if you run an unmatched query eg " table" against "find duplicates for table" it removes all the duplicate entries, effectively removing some rows with data that i want. I would like to be able to keep only one of the duplicate entries in the finished list.

from this:

name1 phone1
name2 phone2
name2 phone2
name3 phone3

to this:

name1 phone1
name2 phone2
name3 phone3

NOT this:(which the unmatched query i spoke of results in)

name1 phone1
name3 phone3

any ideas?

peter57r

To do this you employ a trick.

Create a copy of the table structure (not the data); make sure that the fields that identify duplicates are all part of a unique index.
Run an append query which appends all records from your old table to your new table.
Delete your old table and rename the new one.

(To copy a table structure, right-click the table name in the databse window, and copy and paste to a new named table)

Pete

senan072100

if I understand you well, what about adding select distinct to the first query, by thoing this u will get ride of douplicated records, then run the output against the unmatched query, just an idea ???!!!

peter57r

If your problem is that you have records which are complete duplicates (every field is the same) then you can use select distnct * to select records Distinct looks at every selected field in your select statement. You could use this as the basis of a make table or append query.

I did not anticipate this being the problem. Most issues of this type are 'duplicate key' problems.

But if you have complete duplicates then there can't be a field to match on with your original table, since by definition this would mean that the records were not duplicates.

Pete

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paul_st

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