Author Topic: Searching CiviCRM contacts by last name? (Read 632 times)

Wavesaver · May 02, 2013, 12:26:19 pm

I am trying to export all individual contacts from my CiviCRM database. I am working with a consultant who wants this list. We have over 14,000 in our database. Each time I try to export "all individual contacts" the export fails because the list is too big.

***I want to break this list up and search by last names A-M and N-Z, or something similar. I need to know I am exporting every individual contact, over the course of two or three exports. Any experience with this? Any advice on how to do this? Timing wise, I am trying to pull this off by Monday 5-6-13.

petednz · May 02, 2013, 02:01:58 pm

I have never hit a situation where export fails due to size - are you on a v limited hosting set up?

Guy Iaccarino · May 02, 2013, 07:18:12 pm

Depending on the make up of your contacts and whether or not you have gender data, you could try splitting it in two by using the male / female radio button in the Advanced Search. That would give you two groups anyway, and hopefully neither of them would be too big.

Or you could use the Search Builder and use the following type of statement to find the last names that begin with specific letters of the alphabet:

Last Name LIKE a% ...AND... Contact Type - 'Individual'
OR
Last Name LIKE b% ...AND... Contact Type - 'Individual'
OR
Last Name LIKE c% ...AND...] Contact Type - 'Individual

and so on...

As you added additional letters that the last names begin with, you could see how many contacts it generates and adjust your search statement accordingly to get the right size exports.

Neither of these is elegant, and I'm sure there is a way to do it all at once through the back end, but depending on your budget and time, one of these should get it done relatively quickly. Then when you have more time you could investigate why you are getting the time out for the entire list.

As an aside, any thought to giving the consultant access to Civi?

I hope this helps.

Guy

petednz · May 03, 2013, 03:52:00 pm

an easier 'search' might be to use Search Builder
and use the internal iD to get your first,second, third quartiles - or whoever many chunks you need
if you think your IDs are fairly contiguous

Search 1 = Internal ID < <insert ID that sits around first quartile>
Search 2 = Internal ID <=> <insert IDs for first and second quartile>
etc

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Author Topic: Searching CiviCRM contacts by last name? (Read 632 times)

Wavesaver

Searching CiviCRM contacts by last name?

petednz

Re: Searching CiviCRM contacts by last name?

Guy Iaccarino

Re: Searching CiviCRM contacts by last name?

petednz

Re: Searching CiviCRM contacts by last name?