Chapter 14: Finding Duplicates

Chapter 14: Finding Duplicates Transcript

Testing for duplicate entries is a standard analysis test in IDEA. Here is how it works.

To start, open the Sales Transactions database. On the Analysis Tab, in the Explore group, select Duplicate Key and then Detection. The Duplicate Key Detection dialog opens. Keep the default selection of Output duplicate records. In order to search for duplicates, you need to identify which fields you want IDEA to search in. Click Key and select Invoice number from the field list. You can search up to 8 fields for duplicates. Click OK to return to the Duplicate Key Detection dialog.

You can use the Fields button to refine what fields show up in your output. You can define criteria to further refine what shows up in your output. For this example, I’m not entering a value in criteria, nor changing the fields.

Lastly, provide a name for your new file. I’m calling mine Duplicate Invoices and click OK. There are 4 results which show two results for Invoice numbers ending in 97 and two duplicates for that ending in 350.

Note that IDEA does not strip these records from the dataset because that would violate rules about not deleting any data.