Partial duplicates: is it possible to specify which partial duplicates to delete?

Hi,

I have a database of companies, and I have a large number of partial duplicates to delete. In some cases I might have two or three listings (each in separate rows) with the same person, same company, same contact details, but i might have different information about the company in other columns in the same listings.

An example:
NAME | OFFICE_NAME | ADDRESS | EMAIL | Notes | Unsubscribe
Joe Soap | Joe Soap Ltd | Soap Street, Soapville | [email protected] | not interested | 1
Joe Soap | Joe Soap Ltd | Soap Street, Soapville | [email protected] | |

So as you can see, there's no values in the notes or unsubscribe columns in the 2nd entry. So obviously I don't want to annoy this guy, and I'd like to delete the 2nd duplicate entry, and keep the one that tells me he wants to be unsubscribed.

I'd also have other uses for this, for instance to ensure that if I have duplicate listings for a paying subscriber, that I don't delete the record which states their subscription status, payment info etc.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,

Jeff

Hi Jeff

The problem with partial matches is that there are so many opportunities for mis-matching data !

I have written a macro which will consolidate several entries, leaving mis-matches to be sorted.

Let me know how it works for you.

Regards
Alastair

Thanks so much Alastair,

I'll have a play around with this and let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

Jeff