removing duplicates from access97 database

I have a access database containing a table called Contact, the table contains these fields Name,Address,Phone. I need to find the duplicate phone #'s and remove all but 1 of them from the database. I do not have a primary key and I cannot add one. (if I add it I have to do it programatically) Any Idea how to do this without looping thru the database (some of these databases contain over 10,000 rows ) ????

Jean-Guy

Isn't there a Find Duplicates wizard in Access? I think if you goto Insert, then Query - in the New Query window - choose Find Duplicates Wizard, you can get a query that will do this for you. otherwise, you could something like this:

SELECT
PhoneNumber
FROM
Table
GROUP BY
PhoneNumber
HAVING
Count(PhoneNumber) > 1




that would at least get you a list of all the duplicates, then you'd have write some other query that would delete them.

good luck,

john

John Pirkey
MCSD
http://www.ShallowWaterSystems.com
http://www.stlvbug.org