Preventing Duplicates
Many database developers ( and a lot of us in general ) have this quirk about ourselves - we want our stuff to be "clean". Not in the sense of being dirty, but rather avoiding duplicates. If there's only one Matt Petrowsky as a customer, there should only be one record
So, how do you solve this problem? Well, it all depends on your objectives related to duplicate data. To start with, the key is knowing about all the possible options and how they affect your decisions.
Using the poor example of a unique first and last name ( there is another Matt Petrowsky on this planet ), I talk about the various native and scripted solutions to solving the problem of duplicates. While there's no "one-fix" solution, you can get pretty close to eliminating the vast majority of accidental duplications.
Watch this video to gain a better understanding of what your options are within FileMaker and, by all means, make your own suggestions in the comments below. Like the suggestion of using global fields and pseudo-records prior to data submission ( I didn't even cover this one ) [grin] - but I did cover a lot of other stuff!