The same email address is in my list twice
A contact list contains what is obviously the same person more than once.
Why it happens
- Exact string comparison is case-sensitive, and email addresses are routinely written in whatever case the person typed.
- The specification is partly to blame for the confusion.
- Display wrappers cause the rest.
- The consequence is not just an untidy list.
What to do now
- Lowercase and trim before comparing anything.
- Strip display wrappers first, so that what you are comparing is the address rather than the presentation of it.
- Decide which record wins per field rather than picking a row.
Next time
An email field is stored lowercased, so the case a sender happened to type stops being a difference at all.
Start from the contact list template.
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