Is there a way to group up by name when there is not an exact match: for example, I have a record of John Doe and another record with John D. Doe. Is there a way when you group up to put John Doe with John D. Doe (both in ONE Group) Thanks
You need a unique way of identifying them. If John D. Doe is John Doe in another record, and John Q. Doe is John Doe in still another record, you have a problem you won’t be able to solve with code. You use their unique IDs to group them.
IF all of your records have phone numbers or email addresses, then, IF John and John D have consistent entries there, then that’s a possible workaround to group by.
To do this, you must create a new field that has data that will match exactly. In this specific example, you create create a new field and fill it with just the first and last names.
formulafill firstword(Name)+" "+lastword(Name)
This will solve the sample problem you used to illustrate what you want, but it is not a general solution to “close” matches – there is no such thing as a general computerized solution, this can only be done by a human.