Comments on: Deleting Duplicate Records in FileMaker

By: Atif Khan

Atif Khan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:37:54 +0000

I created this script and it worked fine. $NAME will copy the value for which I am looking a duplicate record. Sort the records first and run this script.

I don’t know how to copy the script form FileMaker to here so this is just my typing here.

Show all records
Sort Records
Go to First Record
Set Variable $Name=cFirstNameLastName (assuming I am checking on this field)
Go to Next Record– to match the $name
Loop
IF( cFirstNameLastName=$NAME
DELETE RECORD — If it is same as previous record delete it
ELSE
Set Variable $Name=cFirstNameLastName –if not reset the variable to current records value
GO to Next Recrd (next, exit after last)
End if

END LOOP

By: Atif Khan

Atif Khan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:35:54 +0000

I created this script and it worked fine. $ID will copy the value for which I am looking a duplicate record. Sort the records first and run this script.

I don’t know how to copy the script form FileMaker to here so this is just my typing here.

Show all records
Sort Records
Go to First Record
Set Variable $Name=cFirstNameLastName (assuming I am checking on this field)
Go to Next Record– to match the $name
Loop
IF( cFirstNameLastName=$NAME
DELETE RECORD — it is same as previous record delete it
ELSE
Set Variable $Name=$NAME –if not reset the variable to current records value
GO to Next Recrd (next, exit after last)
End if

END LOOP

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:45:33 +0000

I’m self taught using FM9 and am trying to remove dupes as indicated. Am I right in assuming that the duplicate table populates automatically from the record list once the relationships have been defined, or do I have to do something else?

Thank you.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:29:01 +0000

If two field records are blank, the comparison does not work and the records are not deleted. What should I do?

By: John Mansel-Pleydell

John Mansel-Pleydell — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:34:09 +0000

Awesome! many would say the holy Grail of filemaker to be able to remove duplicate records! Worked like a charm.

By: Kevin Lincicome

Kevin Lincicome — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:43:58 +0000

Relationship does not appear above, it should read;
“or is the relationship Old Customer::ID = Current Customer::ID correct?”

By: Kevin Lincicome

Kevin Lincicome — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:40:37 +0000

In my DB I have a list of names/ID’s in one table, let’s call this “Old Customers”. I then have a different table with another set of names/ID’s, I call this “Current Customers”. I want to email an offer to all “Old Customers” as long as they are not Current Customers. How can I delete from “Old Customers” anyone that is also a “Current Customer”?
This script looks like it should work, but seems to delete the entire list of “Old Customers”. Should there be a 3rd table “Duplicate Customers” or is the relationship Old Customer::ID = Current Customer::ID correct?
Sorry… I have been trying to wrap by brain around this and may be confused on something quite simple!
Thanks for any help.

By: Craig

Craig — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:59:35 +0000

If you are unsure about running a loop on a large DB you could also export all data into Excel and use remove duplicate filter.

Google: excel remove duplicates

By: DaveMill

DaveMill — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:52:27 +0000

Hi, all,

I’ve been playing around with the built-in ! operator in find mode, which finds all records with non-unique values in a field.

If I create a calculation field to concatenate multiple fields, I can use the ! operator to find non-unique values in multiple fields.

And since my databases (and I suspect those of many of you) are so complex, I don’t want to let a script automatically delete first, last or any other duplicate value. I need to make that decision myself.

So my deduplicate solution is to use the ! operator, sort the results, then click a check box field to identify records I want to delete. This works great for me.

Later!

By: Søren Dyhr

Søren Dyhr — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:24:06 +0000

I’ve just learned that the approach showed here, not is most potent algoritm one could come up with, using the scriptmaker steps availiable.

Following script using a tecnique introdced to me by Agnès Barouh of Tic Tac:

[code]Sort Records [ Speci?ed Sort Order: Contacts::FistName; ascending
Contacts::LastName; ascending
Contacts::ZipCode; ascending ]
[ Restore; No dialog ]
Replace Field Contents [ Contacts::gStrainedList; Replace with calculation: Case(
Get( RecordNumber ) ? 1 and Contacts::FistName = $t and
Contacts::LastName = $u and Contacts::ZipCode = $w;
Let( $theIDs = $theIDs & ¶ & Contacts::RecordID; "" );
Let(
[
$t = Contacts::FistName;
$u = Contacts::LastName;
$w = Contacts::ZipCode
];
""
)
) ]
[ No dialog ]
Set Field [ Contacts::gStrainedList; $theIDs ]
Go to Related Record [ From table: “Contacts 2”; Using layout: “Contacts” (Contacts) ] [ Show only related records ]
Delete All Records [ No dialog ]
[/code]

–sd