Unify Records and Delete Double Entries

[cmaunoury]

OK, I added this in another topic, but I think it deserves a new one..

 

I am working on uniting contacts database that have been made over the years with each one of them having around  10.000 entries with about 20 fields. On these 10.000, I am almost certain that there are 90% that have common data, some entries might be for the same person but wouldn't have the same fields populated (e.g: the 10 years ago version probably does not have email address, but the contact have been duplicated over the years...). I know it has been stupid data management to create new databases over the years with some common parts, some now, but please believe this is something I have been yelling at enough.

 

I now all those databases with equal fields in Excel docs and I was thinking that it was the perfect occasion to switch my contact management to "the clouds" and have it uploaded on a Mysql database.

 

What I am wondering about is whether there would be a PHP code that could make me unite entries with the same, say 'name' and 'surname' fields so that I don't loose important data and then that could make me delete double (and also triple, quadruple, etc.) entries.

 

I would be a happy man (and the people who have been messing with their contacts data over the years too) if I had this clean database on mysql and I could then work on a back-office management system and sync features...

 

Thanks for your help...

 

Colin

 

I am working on PHP 4 / MySQL - 5.0.32

[Barand]

Because name/surname are the same doesn't necessarily mean it's a duplicate - you could have two "John Smith" but different details. A better check would be on something that should be unique, like email address.