Query for duplicates

Chantel M Russ

Good evening everyone,

How can I create a query for duplicate records? For some reason, my query is off because I'm receiving no results and team members have informed me that we several dupes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much!

Chantel

Marie Stark

@Chantel M Russ Do you have NXT? Under Tools/Data Health there is a tool to find duplicates.

Faith Murray

@Chantel M Russ If you're working in database view, there is a “Duplicate Constituent Tool” under Admin. I recommend that tool, since it applies fuzzy search filters to catch the widest possible pool.

Catching duplicates in a query can be difficult, because you have to know precisely what to look for. Sometimes a donor may be listed with different addresses, or be entered by his middle name instead of first name, or the last name may be spelled one letter differently. Aside from pulling a list of all new donors and manually screening them – or exporting into Excel and matching fields – I would struggle to come up with a query parameter that would identify all of your duplicates.

Whitney Shelton

@Chantel M Russ Like the others said, it can be difficult. Our database was a mess when I got it so I started with all donors letter A last name and compared. You also have data health tools in NXT (but don't forget to delete them after that fact in database view.) In DB view, under plug ins you also have a dupe consituent merge and those do have an option to delete after.

JoAnn Strommen

@Whitney Shelton
Just remember if you're merging from db view you can potentially lose any elements added using webview like media files. Seems like the best option is merge from webview and the deleting from webview. Certainly not the most user friendly.