More options for Delete Identical tool

[DavidGuthmueller]

Can we have a way to define which duplicate record is deleted under the Delete Identical tool?  For instance, if I have a crime incident that was reported two different ways, then I'd like to be able to define which duplicate is deleted and also have a second option where I can manually chooses which duplicate is deleted.

[MatthewLeonard]

Yes, this would be very helpful!  In my case, I'm trying to delete duplicate records based on identical values in two fields, but I want to specify to keep the one with the lowest value in another field. 

I believe I have found a roundabout way to do this: First, use Sort tool to produce a new copy of the dataset which will be sorted by the first two fields and also then by the third field. So then, when I run Delete Identical, the first duplicate record encountered will be the one with the lowest value in the third field, so this will be the one that remains. But I want to be sure this works.

Ideally, I would be able to specify this behavior as an additional parameter in the Delete Identical tool.

[MargaretCrawford]

Use the Find Identical tool to generate an output indicating all potential duplicate records in your dataset. This table can be joined back to the original layer, then use any logic you wish to select which duplicated record should get deleted, then run the Delete Features tool to delete the selected duplicates. 
If your data is ending up with duplicates because of a data loading procedure, you could consider using the new update options on the Append tool starting in Pro 3.1 to perform targeted updates on existing records in the dataset.