Comparing Tables

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SHall - 03 Nov 2005 06:46 GMT

I need to run a report that queries two different tables. One table list
16,000 physicians (table 1) and the other table list 500 physicians (table 2)
on my medical staff. I need to know which physicians in table 1 are also in
table 2.

Thanks.

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John Vinson - 03 Nov 2005 07:00 GMT

>I need to run a report that queries two different tables. One table list
>16,000 physicians (table 1) and the other table list 500 physicians (table 2)
> on my medical staff. I need to know which physicians in table 1 are also in
>table 2.
>
>Thanks.

How can you - reliably - tell what constitutes a "match"? Do these
tables have Primary Keys? Or are you trying to join on the doctor's
name?

If the latter you may have a tough row to hoe: if one table has "Dr.
Alex Schmidt" and the other has "Al Schmidt MD" then they might or
might not be the same person, and will be hard to join in any case.
Addresses or practice names might not help much either, as doctors do
move around and sometimes have multiple positions.

Could you post some examples of the data in the tables? Fake the names
for privacy if need be.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

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Tom Ellison - 03 Nov 2005 07:03 GMT

Dear SHall:

This might be very easy. If there is a name or identifying number common
between the two tables that is absolutely identical if and only if they
represent the same physician, then it would be very simple. But if one
table has Dr. Don Smith and the other has Dr Donald K. Smith then it's going
to be difficult to impossible to do it without extensive human intervention.

So, if there is an "identity" between the two tables, just let me know what
column(s) contain that identity and we'll get it going easily. If not, then
the next step would be to find what "similarities" there are that could be
helpful in matching them.

Tom Ellison

> I need to run a report that queries two different tables. One table list
> 16,000 physicians (table 1) and the other table list 500 physicians (table
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Thanks.

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