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Main => Help Me => Topic started by: thomamon on February 18, 2013, 03:52:51 PM

Title: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: thomamon on February 18, 2013, 03:52:51 PM
I don't know why but we are always having duplicate players in out database.   Just purchased and upgraded to the newer version hoping this would fix the problem, but it seems to have only gotten worse.  Because now I have multiple players in the standings listed twice AND they are already listed as being merged.  I can't find anyway to merge them or fix this.

Any suggestions or ideas on how to fix this?

Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Magic_fubu on February 18, 2013, 04:44:11 PM
When you register people, are you using "new player" or "add player"? If new, that would be the issue right there. Only thing I can think of off hand.
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: thomamon on February 18, 2013, 06:57:24 PM
When you register people, are you using "new player" or "add player"? If new, that would be the issue right there. Only thing I can think of off hand.

I am not sure.  Is there a way to merge them all together tho?
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Magic_fubu on February 18, 2013, 08:57:27 PM
The way that Corey told me, if I recall right, is to delete the duplicates from the database. Then you would have to go through and look for the italicized names in each tournament (that, or red, or both?) - that will show that they played, but are not in the database. From there, you would want to bring up the player profile of that player, and merge it with the database player.
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Corey Cooper on February 19, 2013, 10:57:59 AM
The question is, how are you getting duplicates?  At buy-in or tournament setup are you entering new players that are already in the database?  Doesn't the software warn you that there is already a player with the same name?  Or are you entering different names for the same people that are already in the database?  Are you importing players from a file?  The software should also warn you at that time that the players have the same names as players already in your database.

Quote
Because now I have multiple players in the standings listed twice AND they are already listed as being merged.

What do you mean "they are already listed as being merged"?

There are a couple of methods for eliminating duplicate players, but it will depend on what information in the database is important to you.  The player database serves 3 purposes, mainly: (1) as a place to store player personal information (address, phone, email, etc; items beyond their name); (2) as a way to uniquely identify players and collate them across saved tournaments; and (3) as a means to divide players into leagues and divide tournaments into seasons.

If you don't mind losing that personal player information, you can easily (well, sort of easily) rebuild a database by deleting all of the players in the database and loading each of your saved tournaments and adding the players to the database or merging them with existing players.

Magic_fubu's answer is a really succinct way of putting it, and is what I would recommend.  To give a concrete example, let's say you have 3 players in your database named "Joe", but they all represent the same player, so you need to eliminate two of them as duplicates.

(1) Pick the "best" Joe in the database.  That is, pick the one with the most up-to-date personal information.  If it doesn't matter, then pick one at random.  Delete the other two.
(2) Load your first tournament.  Go to the Players tab.  See the players listed italics?  Those were players you deleted from the database.  That is, those were "attached" to the wrong database player.  Press the Merge Players button (or, on version 3, press the Database button and then press Merge players in your current tournament...).
(3) This allows you to match each italicized player with the corresponding player in the database.
(4) Save the tournament.  Repeat with all saved tournaments.

Instead of doing this one player at a time, in step 1 delete ALL of your duplicate players, leaving only one of each player in the player database.  In step 2, merge ALL italicized players.

Once you've made one pass through all of your saved tournaments, you should be done.  Make a backup.
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: thomamon on February 20, 2013, 06:33:58 PM
The question is, how are you getting duplicates?  At buy-in or tournament setup are you entering new players that are already in the database?  Doesn't the software warn you that there is already a player with the same name?  Or are you entering different names for the same people that are already in the database?  Are you importing players from a file?  The software should also warn you at that time that the players have the same names as players already in your database.

Quote
Because now I have multiple players in the standings listed twice AND they are already listed as being merged.

What do you mean "they are already listed as being merged"?

There are a couple of methods for eliminating duplicate players, but it will depend on what information in the database is important to you.  The player database serves 3 purposes, mainly: (1) as a place to store player personal information (address, phone, email, etc; items beyond their name); (2) as a way to uniquely identify players and collate them across saved tournaments; and (3) as a means to divide players into leagues and divide tournaments into seasons.

If you don't mind losing that personal player information, you can easily (well, sort of easily) rebuild a database by deleting all of the players in the database and loading each of your saved tournaments and adding the players to the database or merging them with existing players.

Magic_fubu's answer is a really succinct way of putting it, and is what I would recommend.  To give a concrete example, let's say you have 3 players in your database named "Joe", but they all represent the same player, so you need to eliminate two of them as duplicates.

(1) Pick the "best" Joe in the database.  That is, pick the one with the most up-to-date personal information.  If it doesn't matter, then pick one at random.  Delete the other two.
(2) Load your first tournament.  Go to the Players tab.  See the players listed italics?  Those were players you deleted from the database.  That is, those were "attached" to the wrong database player.  Press the Merge Players button (or, on version 3, press the Database button and then press Merge players in your current tournament...).
(3) This allows you to match each italicized player with the corresponding player in the database.
(4) Save the tournament.  Repeat with all saved tournaments.

Instead of doing this one player at a time, in step 1 delete ALL of your duplicate players, leaving only one of each player in the player database.  In step 2, merge ALL italicized players.

Once you've made one pass through all of your saved tournaments, you should be done.  Make a backup.

Wow, is this as confusing as it sounds?

I really have no clue why this keeps happening.  If I sent you the league database, would you be able to look at it and tell us why it happened so we make sure it doesn't happen again?  

I'll back it up right now and try what you said to see if that helps.

Just spoke to my friend who ran the tournaments and had him read this post.  He said:

"i had to add alot of people since they werent in the database thats why they came up again i used "new player" "
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Magic_fubu on February 20, 2013, 07:36:29 PM
I sure can take a look at it for you. Tell your buddy to search ONLY first OR last name, not both. Unless you have 1000s of names, going by one or the other should show results on one screen, or at worst a small scroll to check and enter. Should always use add player.

Send it to me at michael.brinkley@hotmail.com and I can fix it up for you. I've got plenty of time to kill tonight :)
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Magic_fubu on February 20, 2013, 07:37:04 PM
BTW - which version of TTD are you using? I want to ensure compatibility when being sent back and forth
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: thomamon on February 20, 2013, 08:04:55 PM
I sure can take a look at it for you. Tell your buddy to search ONLY first OR last name, not both. Unless you have 1000s of names, going by one or the other should show results on one screen, or at worst a small scroll to check and enter. Should always use add player.

Send it to me at michael.brinkley@hotmail.com and I can fix it up for you. I've got plenty of time to kill tonight :)
I have the latest.  Will send it right now.

Thanks so much, really appreciate it.  Will have him read this post again.
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Magic_fubu on February 20, 2013, 09:32:09 PM
Confirming receipt of the zip file. Will work on it as quickly as I can for you. Will report back to you when I finish and get it sent back.  ;D
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Corey Cooper on February 21, 2013, 10:57:02 AM
Wow, is this as confusing as it sounds?

I really have no clue why this keeps happening.  If I sent you the league database, would you be able to look at it and tell us why it happened so we make sure it doesn't happen again?  

I'll back it up right now and try what you said to see if that helps.

Just spoke to my friend who ran the tournaments and had him read this post.  He said:

"i had to add alot of people since they werent in the database thats why they came up again i used "new player" "

Not to me.  :-)

Seriously, it IS confusing.  The database can be fixed.  But you want to fix the root problem, so it doesn't keep happening.

The TD software will let you enter duplicates (clearly), but does try to warn you when this happens.  Slight variations in spelling will nullify the warning.

Quote
"i had to add alot of people since they werent in the database thats why they came up again i used "new player" "

I guess that means he wasn't able to find the appropriate player at buy-in so he created a new player.  The trick, as with any search feature, is to use as little search info as possible.  As Magic_fubu said, search on just one name.  Hopefully even searching on just part of the first or last name would yield just a few results that could be quickly glanced through.

Note that each field is searched separately.  As an example, my entry in the database would have a First name of "Corey" and a Last name of "Cooper".  If you search for Corey Cooper, it will NOT be found.  That's because the First name ("Corey") is search for Corey Cooper, and that doesn't match ("Corey" doesn't have a space or "Cooper" in it).  Then the last name ("Cooper") is likewise searched for Corey Cooper which also doesn't match (again, no space and no "Corey" in "Cooper").

The search feature is a general search.  It does NOT assume you might enter a first name followed by a space followed by a last name.  It assumes you're entering a string of characters that it looks for in all of the fields, including address, email, phone, ID, etc.

We're all spoiled by Google.  The TD search isn't that smart.  :)
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Corey Cooper on February 21, 2013, 05:26:15 PM
So I updated the search as a result of this.  Now searching breaks the search string into words (character groups, really, divided by whitespace).  There's a new preference for searching called "Strict search".  If enabled, the search acts nearly like it does today: each word entered would have to be found in the player's info for it to "match" the player.  If you disable "Strict search", a player will match if *any* of the words entered into the search field match.
Title: Re: Multiple Duplicates
Post by: Magic_fubu on February 21, 2013, 09:03:57 PM
I think that's a great change.

Also, for the record for anyone else following, I did take care of the duplicates of his league on my computer, sent them back, but he's still getting duplicates. I can confirm on my end that they're not there, so I made the suggestion of removing all the files in the data\db folder, then placing the files of the db folder I sent back into that folder... Should resolve the issues on his end of still seeing duplicates