Unique Tool
Use Unique to distinguish whether a row is unique or a duplicate by grouping it on one or more specified columns and sorting by those columns.
Tip
This tool has a One Tool Example. Visit Access Sample Workflows to learn how to access this and many other examples directly in Designer Cloud.
Configure the Tool
Columns to Find Unique Values: Select the columns you want to check for unique values. Use the Select All checkbox to compare entire rows.
The data is sorted based on the Unique columns. Therefore, if you need a specific sort order, use the Sort tool to assign it to the file prior to using the Unique tool.
Output Anchors
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Figure: Unique tool with output anchors.
The Unique tool has 2 output anchors:
U anchor: Contains the unique rows from the dataset. The first row of each group is shown.
D anchor: Contains the duplicate rows from the dataset. The remaining rows from each group are shown.
Warning
Manual inspection of the results is often necessary to ensure that rows flagged as duplicates are actually duplicates. For example, you might have 2 customers that share the same name but live at different addresses. If you think your dataset might include those types of outliers, you might want to select additional columns when you configure this tool.
Output Example
Here's an example of the Unique tool output based on a sample dataset.
Input Data Stream
In the Unique Configuration window, we select both the FirstName and LastName columns from our incoming data stream to make sure that we don't include duplicate entries of the same FirstName-LastName combination.
FirstName | LastName |
|---|---|
Pamela | Wright |
Melissa | Ruff |
Constanti | Vlassis |
Amy | Lockemer |
Danielle | Valdez |
Pamela | Wright |
Mary | Kiniry |
Melissa | Ruff |
Danielle | Valdez |
U Anchor Output
The U output anchor returns all unique rows from the above incoming data stream.
FirstName | LastName |
|---|---|
Amy | Lockemer |
Constanti | Vlassis |
Danielle | Valdez |
Mary | Kiniry |
Melissa | Ruff |
Pamela | Wright |
D Anchor Output
The D output anchor returns any duplicate rows from the above incoming data stream.
FirstName | LastName |
|---|---|
Danielle | Valdez |
Melissa | Ruff |
Pamela | Wright |