Needing a better way to determine duplicates in a large data base.
Asked by Chris Babb:

Currently I my team is getting over 1K leads a day and we need to verify if they are already in our system. We are currently using email addresses and having to search them one at a time from a google sheet. We split screen and copy email and paste in search one at a time.  
Is there a way to bring in the list of emails and check for duplicates without having to do them one at a time? When we do get duplicates the new information is added to the existing card. If there is a plug in that could do this that would be great. If it were an easy process I might even add in phone number as a search criteria as well.

Thank you for any assistance you might be able to give.   
Chris


Answers:
author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: Hi [@Chris Babb](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5409227)

There is a way to do basic duplicate detection in Trello but involves having the email address in the title of a card.

If you are importing leads from a spreadsheet and mapping spreadsheet fields to custom fields on Trello, you can do this:

```
When custom fields "Name" and "Email" are completed on a card, rename the card to {{%Name}} - {{%Email}}?
```

Then to do duplicate detection you can do this...

```
When the name on a card contains {*} - {*}, lookup a card with title {*} - {wildcard2}, add the orange label "Duplicate Detected" and add the link "{foundcardlink}" to the card
```

This automation will lookup the cards on the board and if it finds one with the same email in the title and add a label to the newly added one and put a link to the original duplicate on the card...

comments: author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: ...to add, you can import from a spreadsheet to Trello using [Trello Import by Bluecat](https://trello.com/power-ups/61fa6cd2cc14647c2c9ee821/trello-import-by-blue-cat)


author: Chris Babb
body: Thank you again for your time...


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I think you have asked this in the wrong place. I suspect your application/service is using an Atlassian service to do issue tracking or documentation, and you have clicked on "help with docs/tracker service" instead of "help with the application/service".   

Trello has no database functions and isn't suitable for 1k new cards a day.  

comments: author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: Hi [@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781454)

I am going to challenge this point. Although Trello isn't ideal as a database, it can adequately serve as on and many of the instances I have deployed to customers involve lead, contacts and client boards serving as databases.

You are correct about 1k new cards a day not being suitable if this ends up being cumulative. However, it is more than capable of handling the import and processing of 1k cards so long as they are processed and moved through a system without accumulating.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: The things you are doing with it here are not database functions they're search and update.

It can serve as a simple database, yes, but my point here is that they can't be using Trello for whatever they are doing, and they need to look at their system, not Trello.


author: Chris Babb
body: Gents,  
Thank you for the feedback... I may not be describing trello in the appropriate terminology. We use Trello to house our leads and assign them out. To prevent duplicates we check and see if the lead is already in our system by searching Trello with the email address of the lead. This is a manual process and done one at a time. I have programmed the mouse buttons to do repetitive keyboard tasks like copy paste and select all to speed the process up but still is a cumbersome task. I was hoping there was an add on or feature within Trello that would allow for the list of emails to be checked against the leads in Trello to prevent duplicate leads. this will prevent leads from being assigned to two people for the same lead. Hoping that clarifies the task at hand. Certainly am appreciative of both of you for your time and replies so far...  
Chris


author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: This is possible, however there isn't a specific powerup for it.

Do you put the email address into a Trello Custom field?