How to detect duplicate data?

Question

I have got a simple contacts database but I\'m having problems with users entering in duplicate data. I have implemented a simple data comparison but unfortunately the duplicate

Answer 1

This may or may not be related but, minor misspellings might be detected by a Soundex search, e.g., this will allow you to consider Britney Spears, Britanny Spares, and Britny Spears as duplicates.

Nickname contractions, however, are difficult to consider as duplicates and I doubt if it is wise. There are bound to be multiple people named Bill Smith and William Smith, and you would have to iterate that with Charles->Chuck, Robert->Bob, etc.

Also, if you are considering, say, Muslim users, the problems become more difficult (there are too many Muslims, for example, that are named Mohammed/Mohammad).