Importing to Goldmine 5.7 Excluding duplicates in multiple databases

[PaulMSI]

Hi
I'm new to a company that is using goldmine 5.7 (dbase)
There are 5 different databases that are used to hold different types of contacts.
What I am trying to do is to import a list into 1 of the databases, but exclude those names that are in Any of the 5 databases.
I know how to exclude the duplicates that are in the database that I'm importing to, but I dont know how to exclude those duplicates that are in one of the other 4 databases.
Thanks for your help!
Paul

 

[goner]

you can't. Great reason to have ONE database and maybe a 'contact type' field...

Doug Castell
Castell Computers

http://www.castellcomputers.com

 

[PaulMSI]

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks for your help!
-Paul

 

[lisaharris]

Well, in you could, but not in GoldMine itself.

You could import the contact1 table from each of the databases into an Access database, then combine those tables into one table, and compare your new list to that compiled GoldMine copy. Takes a good amount of Access knowledge but it's definitely doable.


__________
It's better to have loved and lost than live with the idiot for the rest of your life.

 

[goner]

you've got a lot of time on your hands, eh, Lisa?

Doug Castell
Castell Computers

http://www.castellcomputers.com

 

[lisaharris]

Macros, Doug.... lots and lots of macros. Access is my friend.

__________
It's better to have loved and lost than live with the idiot for the rest of your life.

 

[PaulMSI]

Hi Lisa
Thanks for your response. I'm more experienced with Access than with GM, so this is what I had already tried:
1. I imported the Contact 1 files from GM into Access, creating separate tables in Access.
2. I created different queries to see which contacts were duplicates using the contact name and state as the fields to join the tables on in the queries. (Assuming that the combination of the contact name and the state would give me unique identities)
3. This then gave me lists of probable duplicates in the various GM databases from the previously imported names which I guess will have to be manually deleted in GM once I determine which name in which GM database is the correct one to keep.
Now as far as the future imports, which was what I had originally asked about, let me make sure I understand: I import all 5 GM Contact1 databases into Access, then I combine them into 1 Access database. Then I take me File that I plan on importing to GM and then remove any names that already are in the combined Access file using a delete query.
Thanks!
Paul

 

[lisaharris]

I do something very similar, but I don't delete the records that match. I create another column in the table with the new records and update it with the GoldMine account number as I run queries to match (phone, company, contact name, address, etc). Then I run a make table query where the accountno field is null to get the net new records, export that to dbase III (which I can do, since I'm still using Access 2003) and import that into GoldMine.

I usually have to do some massaging of the new list, such as reformatting the phone numbers to match GoldMine, plus I compare partial information -- I often get good matches by using the first 12 characters of the company name, the first 10 characters of the address1 line, or I do a join on the state and match the last 8 characters of the phone number (so it's matching phone without area code) since there are so many area code changes and splits.

I do have a lot of macros and pre-created queries so I just have to drop my new list into the proper table and let Access process it for me.

__________
It's better to have loved and lost than live with the idiot for the rest of your life.