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Detect similar entry

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Tim_Bourguignon
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Hi there, I‘m searching for a way to detect duplicate entries in a table.

My table contains event names, currated by me. I have a form that anyone can use, to suggest new events.

When someone submits an event, I‘d like the table to warn me that an event with a similar name already exists.

Any idea how to do this?

Thanks

4 Comments
Elias_Gomez_Sai
13 - Mars
13 - Mars

There are several threads about duplicates: https://community.airtable.com/search?q=duplicates

W_Vann_Hall
13 - Mars
13 - Mars

Airtable offers a Dedupe Block that allows you to scrube a table of possible duplicate entries. If you want on-the-fly processing — which it sounds like you do — you can use my data deduplication routines fo0r real-time deduplication.

Both the Block and my code support ‘fuzzy’ matching. In my case, how fuzzy depends on you: You define the formula to instance {MatchKey}, so you can tailor the match to the specifics of your data. In addition, I provide a way for you to flag false-positives (that is, records that trigger the ‘duplicate?’ warning but actually represent individual items: for instance, an event of the same name but held in different locations) and to make these flags persistent, so you don’t find yourself having to clear the same group of false positives every time you deduplicate the table.

Since you’re using forms, your implementation of my routines will be even easier than if you weren’t: To trigger deduplication, every record of the table to be deduped has to be linked to one record in another table. That’s typically a [trivial but] manual process. By using form prefill, though, you can ensure every new record added through the form has the necessary link made, so the moment the user submits the form, it will be vetted for duplication.

Tim_Bourguignon
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Thanks for your reply, but this is way too complicated and too simple at the same time for what I am doing since my duplicates are very fuzzy… I’ll stick to doing it manually for now.

Cheers!

Helena_Ahlstrom
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Thank you for this awesome guide. I just implemented the duplicate detection and it works great for the records that were already in the base, but is there a way to get it to automatically check new records that I enter?