Answers.Body: <p>Our understanding is:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Yes it does work =]</li>
  <li>Using this feature compares everyone in the
  smart group with everyone in the database (whether they are in the group or not). But this still dramatically reduces the number of comparisons.</li>
  </ol>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-09-10T15:34:08.623Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-09-10T15:34:08.623Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: John
Body: <p>I am helping someone who is trying to segment their contacts into smaller chunks as they go through to dedupe, so they have created a smart group to try to filter the dedupe rule on. (e.g. a subsection of contacts based on state, or a custom field).</p>
  
  <p>When they prepare to dedupe, they have an option to select a group:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8MDOH.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8MDOH.jpg" alt="Dedupe group select"></a></p>
  
  <p>However, they are experiencing some strangeness in the results, including people showing up in the potential duplicates list that aren't in the smart group at all.</p>
  
  <p>This brings up two questions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Does deduping work with Smart Groups? (<a href="https://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=3257.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This post</a> suggests it should have been fixed way back in Civi 2.1, but <a href="http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Find+Duplicate+Contacts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this documentation</a> says it doesn't work)</li>
  <li>Does deduping on a group compare only the people in the group to each other, or does it compare the people in the group to anyone else in the database (whether they are in the group or not)?</li>
  </ol>
  
Tags: <smartgroups><duplicate-contacts>
Title: Can I use Smart Groups to dedupe?
ThreadText: # Can I use Smart Groups to dedupe?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2015-09-09)
  
  I am helping someone who is trying to segment their contacts into smaller chunks as they go through to dedupe, so they have created a smart group to try to filter the dedupe rule on. (e.g. a subsection of contacts based on state, or a custom field).
  
  When they prepare to dedupe, they have an option to select a group:
  
  [![Dedupe group select](https://i.sstatic.net/8MDOH.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/8MDOH.jpg)
  
  However, they are experiencing some strangeness in the results, including people showing up in the potential duplicates list that aren't in the smart group at all.
  
  This brings up two questions:
  
  1. Does deduping work with Smart Groups? ([This post](https://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=3257.0) suggests it should have been fixed way back in Civi 2.1, but [this documentation](http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Find+Duplicate+Contacts) says it doesn't work)
  2. Does deduping on a group compare only the people in the group to each other, or does it compare the people in the group to anyone else in the database (whether they are in the group or not)?
  
  **Tags:** smartgroups, duplicate-contacts
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2015-09-10. Score: 2 | Accepted answer
  
  Our understanding is:
  
  1. Yes it does work =]
  2. Using this feature compares everyone in the
     smart group with everyone in the database (whether they are in the group or not). But this still dramatically reduces the number of comparisons.
  
  
  ---
  
  