Enforcing Record Name Uniqueness in Salesforce without Apex

I discovered today that it is possible to enforce record name uniqueness in Salesforce without using any Apex code!

All that is needed is a simple validation rule with the error formula set to the following:

Name = VLOOKUP( $ObjectType.Object.Fields.Name , $ObjectType.Object.Fields.Name , Name ) && Id <> VLOOKUP( $ObjectType.Object.Fields.Id , $ObjectType.Object.Fields.Name , Name )

However, there doesn't seem to be an easy to to perform a case-sensitive comparison in the formula builder. Another thought would be to do the following to enforce name uniqueness:

1. Create a text field called Unique Name on the object, and add the case-sensitive uniqueness constraint.
2. Create a workflow field update called Unique Name that just sets Unique_Name__c to Name.
3. Create a workflow rule called Set Unique Name that's triggered every time a record is created or updated.
4. Activate the workflow rule.

Last edited on 8/10/2011.