How to Search for Duplicate Character Strings

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b

SUMMARY

This article shows by example how to search for duplicate character strings by using macro substitution to examine each field of each record. When found, the duplicate character string, the field name containing the string, and the corresponding record number are displayed on the FoxPro desktop. This code can be modified to search for as many character strings as needed.

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example

1. Create a free table called Names that contains six fields of Character type with a width of 10. Name the fields field1, field2, field3, field4, field5, and field6.

2. Load 10 records. Populate some fields with the name SMITH and the rest with names of your choice. Make certain that in some records SMITH appears in more than one field.

3. Create a program and insert the following code:

   CLOSE DATABASES CLEAR USE names

      SCAN                            && Search through each record
        FOR i = 1 TO FCOUNT()         && Search through each field
            x = FIELD(i)              && Assign the field name to a variable
            IF UPPER(&x) = "SMITH"
              ? &x + "   " + FIELD(i) + "   " + "Record # " ;
                 + LTRIM(STR(RECNO()))
            ENDIF                     && Insert needed IF ENDIF statements
            NEXT i
        ENDFOR
      ENDSCAN
   
   

4. Run the program, and notice that the information that is displayed on the FoxPro desktop.