User Guide
118
Chapter 6
Use the up and down arrow buttons to the right of the list to change the sort
order of the
variables.
The sort ord
er determines the “first” and “last” case within each matching group,
which determines the value of the optional primary indicator variable. For
example, if you want to filter out all but the most recent case in each matching
group, you c
ould sort cases within the group in ascending order of a date variable,
which would make the most recent date the last date in the group.
Indicator of primary cases. Creates a variable with a value of 1 for all unique cases
and the cas
eidentifiedastheprimarycaseineachgroupofmatchingcasesanda
value of 0 for the nonprimary duplicates in each group.
The primary case can be either the last or first case in each matching group, as
determine
d by the sort order within the matching group. If you don’t specify
any sort variables, the original file order determines the order of cases within
each group.
You can use the indicator variable as a filter variable to exclude nonprimary
duplicat
es from reports and analyses without deleting those cases from the data
file.
Sequential count of matching cases in each group. Creates a variable with a sequential
value fr
om 1 to n for cases in each matching group. The sequence is based on the
current order of cases in each group, which is either the original file order or the order
determined by any specified sort variables.
Move matching cases to the top. Sorts the data file so that all groups of matching
cases ar
e at the top of the data file, making it easy to visually inspect the matching
cases in the Data Editor.
Display f requencies for created variables. Frequency tables containing counts for each
value of the created variables. For example, for the primary indicator variable, the
table w
ould show the number of cases with a value 0 for that variable, which indicates
the number of duplicates, and the number of cases with a value of 1 for that variable,
which indicates the number of unique and primary cases.