del dup recs (fwd)

> > Hello! > > Software: On-line 4.0 > OS: Interactive Unix 3.2 > > Problem: Duplicate data in (supposedly) unique columns. > > Question: How do I remove the records with duplicate ssn columns if my data > file has about 25,00 recs of which 8,000 ssn's are dups (according to a select > count(distinct ssn), but data in the other columns may be different? > The problem is that - if it's truly a duplicate - then what is different? answer - the rowid. What I have done in this situation: DEFINE p_rec, p_last_rec LIKE table.*, p_rowid INTEGER DECLARE c_dup CURSOR FOR SELECT ROWID, * FROM table ORDER BY dup_field FOREACH c_dup INTO p_ROWID, p_rec.* IF p_rec.dup_field = p_last_rec.dup_field THEN DELETE FROM table WHERE ROWID = p_rowid # or LET msg = "DELETE FROM table WHERE ROWID = ", p_rowid # DISPLAY msg END IF LET p_last_rec.* = p_rec.* END FOREACH You can fix up as you like. cheers j. _____________________________________________________________________________ Jack Parker | Be frank and explicit with your Hewlett Packard, BSMC Boise, Idaho, USA| lawyer.... It's his business to jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com | confuse the issue afterwards. (208) 396-5388 (W) (208) 384-1623 (H) | - J. R. Solly _____________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions expressed herein are my own and not those of my employers. _____________________________________________________________________________