* Identify all occurrences of a particular place

[crumblyhunter]

I'd like to identify all records that refer to a particular place across all events and attributes – e.g. birth, census, residence.

How can I search for and display all occurrences of a particular place in all events and attributes please?

[DavidNewton]

Try Tools >Work with Data > Places. Select the place and click Where Used. This will give you a results set.

David

[tatewise]

I have moved this to General Usage because it does not appear to be a Plugin issue.

[crumblyhunter]

Try Tools >Work with Data > Places. Select the place and click Where Used. This will give you a results set.

David

Hi David

Thanks for your suggestion. Although this does works, it doesn't identify every occurrence in all columns – this tool only seems to look in the Part 1 columns. So, looking for a place with this tool will identify every occurrence of that place in the Part 1 column, but not if that place is shown in any of the other columns, hence why I thought that this might be a plug-in query. Any further thoughts please?

[DavidNewton]

I'm attaching a custom query which takes as a parameter any string that might appear in a full place name and then returns all the facts where it occurs.
If it is not quite what you want it might provide a basis for constructing your own query.

David

[tatewise]

I think you'll find that the Tools > Work with Data > Places > Where Used is searching for the entire Place as defined by all the Columns strung together, not just Column 1.

The way some users resolve this is to use Tools > Work with Data > Places to formalise their Place names such that there is no duplication.
i.e.
Have a fixed number of Columns with an assigned meaning for each Column.
e.g. Have 3 Columns assigned Town, County, Country
(You can have more Columns if preferred.)
Then use Edit and Replace with until all synonymous Place names use the same format.

Now when searching for any Place it should only have one format and one row in Tools > Work with Data > Places so Where Used is more useful.

There are many Forum postings discussing formatting Place and Address fields. See glossary:places|> Places and Addresses for more details and a list of all the most relevant Forum postings.

[crumblyhunter]

I'm attaching a custom query which takes as a parameter any string that might appear in a full place name and then returns all the facts where it occurs.
If it is not quite what you want it might provide a basis for constructing your own query.

David

Great work David! Your query does exactly what I'd hope to achieve. Thank-you.

[crumblyhunter]

I think you'll find that the Tools > Work with Data > Places > Where Used is searching for the entire Place as defined by all the Columns strung together, not just Column 1.

The way some users resolve this is to use Tools > Work with Data > Places to formalise their Place names such that there is no duplication.
i.e.
Have a fixed number of Columns with an assigned meaning for each Column.
e.g. Have 3 Columns assigned Town, County, Country
(You can have more Columns if preferred.)
Then use Edit and Replace with until all synonymous Place names use the same format.

Now when searching for any Place it should only have one format and one row in Tools > Work with Data > Places so Where Used is more useful.

There are may Forum postings discussing formatting Place and Address fields. See glossary:places|> Places and Addresses for more details and a list of all the most relevant Forum postings.

Thanks for your suggestion about how Tools > Work with Data > Places can be configured and for the KB link – it does seems to offer a good way to organise place data. Looks like I might have some housekeeping to do.