Automatically Delete Duplicate Records From a Table

[exm206]

I have a problem and was wondering if someone could help me. I am trying to automatically delete duplicate records from at table in Access 97. The problem is that Access is trying to delete records that are obviously not duplicates. I am using LastName, FirstName, Street1, and City as the primary keys(which Access should use to match the duplicates. An example of records that Access is trying to telling me are duplicates are:

LastName FirstName Street1 City
2003 Greenwood Assoc 2003 Greenwood Ave Trenton
201 St Pauls Condo Assoc Unknown
208 Sherman Inc. 208 Sherman Ave. Newark

Obviously, the four fields do not match, so these four records are not duplicates. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is here? I appreciate any help you could give me.

 

[Russell Hauf]

Have you tried using the Find Duplicates Query Wizard?

But let me warn you - deleting duplicates is not as easy as it sounds. Many people end up deleting ALL instances of duplicate records, not just all but one...

I recommend using a Make-Table query that gets only the distinct records. Start a new query in design view, change the query to a make-table query, then in the query's Properties window, change Unique Values to Yes. Then you can delete your old table.

HTH,

Russell

 

[johnawebbhsd]

worked great for me.. thanks.. no more messages...