Delete Duplicate Items

[Stuff4Toys]

While importing via EZ Populate, I did not notice that my vendor changed the formats of the Categories and Sub Categories. Categories like:
ANTENNA - ACCES ............ are now
ANTENNA - ACCESSORIES

and so on and so forth, I have about 3,000 duplicate items with the same ID and "Invalid Master Category"

Is there an SQL script I can run to delete items in bulk from the invalid categories? Without Deleting them from the remaining categories?

Not sure of the SQL syntax but I am guessing something like
Delete * from Category 9
Delete * from Category 11
Delete * from Category 46

Will something like this do it? And for the SA's that want to make a smart remark, YES I already searched, but may not be searching for the right keywords, and if I already had a clue, I would not be asking here.

THANKS ALL
JOhn ><>

[kobra]

What and where in the db is Invalid Master Category

Did these also have attributes?

[Stuff4Toys]

What and where in the db is Invalid Master Category

Did these also have attributes?

I don't believe "Invalid Master Category" IS in the database, I believe it is a function of Zen-Cart. See attached screen shot.

So what I really need to do is delete the duplicate items, if I can do it in bulk for each category instead of deleting 3,000 duplicates one at a time.

[Stuff4Toys]

No Attributes

[kobra]

Did not answer where??
Assuming it is the products table - - and "Invalid Master Category" is not present - What is shown in the "products_id" record for a duplicate one and are the dups all shown the same?

  products_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  products_type int(11) NOT NULL default '1',
  products_quantity float NOT NULL default '0',
  products_model varchar(32) default NULL,
  products_image varchar(64) default NULL,
  products_price decimal(15,4) NOT NULL default '0.0000',
  products_virtual tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_date_added datetime NOT NULL default '0001-01-01 00:00:00',
  products_last_modified datetime default NULL,
  products_date_available datetime default NULL,
  products_weight float NOT NULL default '0',
  products_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_tax_class_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
  manufacturers_id int(11) default NULL,
  products_ordered float NOT NULL default '0',
  products_quantity_order_min float NOT NULL default '1',
  products_quantity_order_units float NOT NULL default '1',
  products_priced_by_attribute tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  product_is_free tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  product_is_call tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_quantity_mixed tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  product_is_always_free_shipping tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_qty_box_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '1',
  products_quantity_order_max float NOT NULL default '0',
  products_sort_order int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_discount_type tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_discount_type_from tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_price_sorter decimal(15,4) NOT NULL default '0.0000',
  master_categories_id int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
  products_mixed_discount_quantity tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '1',
  metatags_title_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  metatags_products_name_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  metatags_model_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  metatags_price_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  metatags_title_tagline_status tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
  PRIMARY KEY  (products_id),
  KEY idx_products_date_added_zen (products_date_added),
  KEY idx_products_status_zen (products_status),
  KEY idx_products_date_available_zen (products_date_available),
  KEY idx_products_ordered_zen (products_ordered),
  KEY idx_products_model_zen (products_model),
  KEY idx_products_price_sorter_zen (products_price_sorter),
  KEY idx_master_categories_id_zen (master_categories_id),
  KEY idx_products_sort_order_zen (products_sort_order),
  KEY idx_manufacturers_id_zen (manufacturers_id)

And it might be easiest to restore a DB backup just prior to the EP upload(you do take them - - correct??) and upload the correct update

[Stuff4Toys]

kobra, I have great respect for your years of knowledge and the help you provide people, BUT why are you beating this to death. Did you not look at the screen shot? Zen Cart IS causing the "Invalid Master Category ID" to show up in that pull down

Do you think I am making this up?

I have gone into the ANTENNA - ACCES category and clicked the delete icon, it lists the item and both categories, I uncheck the category that I want the item to remain in and click delete. It deletes the item. When I check the item in the good category, all seems well.

The real problem is that there are categories with over 600 duplicate items and I would just like to delete all the items in the category one category at a time then delete the empty category. This cannot be all that difficult to do.