Eliminating Duplicate Records

Hey There.

I'm in the process of doing a major data clean up and I'm just wondering how I would go about eliminating some redundant data.

The Table Layout

Contracts

CNTRID CONTRACTNUM STARTDATE CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
0 1234567 091885 A
1 1234567 091885 A
2 1111111 111111 B
3 1234567 081205 A


Equipment

EQUIPID DEVICENAME CNTRID CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
0 DEVICE1 0 A
1 DEVICE2 2 B
2 DEVICE3 1 A
3 DEVICE4 3 A


You will notice that each customer may have multiple devices. Each device may be tied to a contract, and each contract may have one or more devices tied to it.

In the example above, you will notice in the contracts table the contracts with the IDs 0 and 1.

Fig 1.

CNTRID CONTRACTNUM STARTDATE CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
0 1234567 091885 A
1 1234567 091885 A


These contracts have the exact same information.

Furthermore, if you look down the table you will notice the contract with the ID 3.

Fig 2.

CNTRID CONTRACTNUM STARTDATE CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
3 1234567 081205 A

This contract shares the same contract and customer number, but has a different start date.


Now lets take a look devices in the equipment table that refer to these records.

EQUIPID DEVICENAME CNTRID CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
0 DEVICE1 0 A
2 DEVICE3 1 A
3 DEVICE4 3 A

You will notice that DEVICE1 and DEVICE 3 refer to the contract records that contain identical data. (As shown in 'Fig 1')

My question is as follows:

How do I eliminate the any duplicate records from the contracts table, and update the records in the equipment table with id of the left over contract.

Results Should be as follows:

Contracts

CNTRID CONTRACTNUM STARTDATE CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
0 1234567 091885 A
2 1111111 111111 B
3 1234567 081205 A


Equipment

EQUIPID DEVICENAME CNTRID CUSTOMNUM
=======================================================
0 DEVICE1 0 A
1 DEVICE2 2 B
2 DEVICE3 0 A
3 DEVICE4 3 A


Any help you may provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
--mike