<TBL>.MARK_DUPS()

Syntax

<TBL>.MARK_DUPS( Duplicate_Key_Expression as C [, Filter as C ] )

Argument	Description
Duplicate_Key_Expression	A field or a combination of fields that Alpha Five uses to determine which records in the table are considered duplicates.
Filter	Optional. Default = .T. (all records). A character filter expression that specifies which records to check for duplicates.

Description

The <TBL>.MARK_DUPS() method is a high-level utility method you use to mark duplicate records in a table.

A Duplicate_Key_Expression is a field or a combination of fields that Alpha Five uses to determine which records in the table are considered duplicates. For example, if you consider a record with the same values in the Firstname, Lastname and Address1 fields to be a duplicate, the Duplicate Key Expression would be: Firstname + Lastname + Address1.

In order to mark a subset of duplicate records, you can add a filter expression to the script. Only records that satisfy the filter are checked for duplicates. If no Filter is specified, then all records are checked for duplicates, regardless of any query that might currently be applied to <TBL>.

Note : If you are marking records in a set with one-many child links off the parent table in which you are marking records, remember that if referential integrity is enabled, marking a parent record will result in all matching child records being marked as well.

<TBL>.MARK_DUPS()selected records in the top picture and <TBL>.MARK_DUPS2() selected the records in the bottom picture. In both cases the query was against the AlphaSports customer table, looking for records where the Firstname field contained the value "James". [Picture]

Supported By

Alpha Five Version 5 and Above

Example

This script marks all duplicate records (not including the first record) in the current table that have the same PROD_ID field.

dim tbl as P

tbl = table.current()

tbl.mark_dups("PROD_ID")

This script marks all duplicate records (not including the first record) with PRICE > 100 in the current table that have the same PROD_ID field.

dim tbl as P

tbl = table.current()

tbl.mark_dups("PROD_ID", "PRICE > 100")