Duplicates: Defense is the best Offense!

The notorious issue of duplicate records is a sure sign of a data integrity issue, which leads to bad reporting, skewed metrics, and even reflect poorly on you as the sender of this information to colleagues or customers. 

When the number of duplicate records in a data set grows, the ultimate effort it takes to clean up is growing along incrementally as well. 

The easiest way to deal with duplicate records is to establish a way to prevent them from being created in the first place. Now with Formula Queries, there is a way to do just that, by querying the table, and returning an alert window with an explanation as to why the record is unable to be created by the user. 

In the above example, a Formula - Multi-select Text field is querying the table and populating itself should any records meet the requirements: 

General Formula Queries Tip: When writing formula queries, unless absolutely necessary, turn off the searchable property for that field. This will help prevent performance issues. 

Here we have another Formula field that is triggering a Form Rule that aborts the Save of the Record, displaying a message as to why:

 

For more in depth info on Formula Queries:

Formula Queries Annoucement
Formula Queries Help

I was inspired to show some working examples from Ashley's article in July:

Finding Duplicates in Quickbase Just Got a Whole Lot Easier

What are some ways you see yourself using Formula Queries to reduce data integrity issues or tackle other common challenges? Leave a comment below and let’s discuss!