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Mass delete

Anonymous
2025-04-07T12:51:51+00:00

Hi

somehow i have appended the same records to a table multiple times.

The table has a data time stamp down to the second called

CallDate/Time

is there a cleaver way of matching the duplicates in this field, then running a delete that will only remove one of the duplicates

Anyhelp would be appreciated

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  1. George Hepworth 22,220 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-04-07T13:05:17+00:00

    Yes, there's a method to do that.

    However, it depends in part on there being a unique value in one field, i.e. a Primary Key, for records. Do you have a Primary Key?

    Also, it may be the case that you could revert to a version of the table from a backup taken just before the erroneous append. That might be the least hassle. It might involve backfilling some records not available in that backup, but it would arguably be less difficult than finding and deleting all but one of a number of duplicate records.

    Microsoft has a page describing one approach to deleting duplicates, if you need to go that route.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/delete-duplicate-records-with-a-query-4e6c3183-689c-439d-9062-326c85d80a83 It doesn't seem to be complete, although it should get you started, IMO.

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  1. DBG 11,531 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-04-07T13:03:14+00:00

    You said you have multiple duplicates, but you only want to delete one of them?

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  2. George Hepworth 22,220 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-04-07T13:07:56+00:00

    One more thought. Make a backup copy or two of this table before starting out on any deletion process. No point in compounding the problem by over-zealous deletion. 😉

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-04-07T13:11:09+00:00

    yes thats right i have imported over time so cant do a restore.

    but the same details are there multiple times

    so im looking for a way ideally to search by the precise date and time stamp down to the second and anything matches remove all but one of the records

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  4. George Hepworth 22,220 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-04-07T13:25:37+00:00

    Does your table have a primary key, or not?

    Do you have a backup of the table, or not?

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