eliminate duplicate records in a data base

[Guest]

I have a data base with lists of names and addresses, many duplicates. How
do I eliminate the duplicates and keep just one entry of each name and address

 

[John Nurick]

The difficult bit is making sure that one understands just what counts
as "duplicates". Is it *exact* duplicates, do you want to eliminate
records that aren't exactly the same but (most likely) refer to the same
person. For example:

James P Jones, 123 Acacia Avenue, Anytown PO43 3AR
Mr James Jones, 123 Acacia Ave., Anytown, Hampshire PO43.

Automated elimination of duplicates requires exact rules defining what
counts as a duplicate - and, when a pair of records are found that meet
those fules, there has to be another set of rules for deciding which of
them should be deleted and which kept.

But you can get quite a long way by using a succession of queries. To
get started, experiment with the Find Duplicates query wizard.

 

[Guest]

Here's an article I ran across recently. It's old (2003), but it probably
still has some value.

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/msaccess/article.php/3077791

cw