ProductsDatabaseSpyDatabase Contents Compare and Merge

Altova DatabaseSpy® 2012 lets you easily compare and merge the contents of database tables.

Developers, data architects, and others who regularly work with databases often need to locate changes, migrate differences, or synchronize versions of database tables. DatabaseSpy includes a powerful database compare and merge tool to satisfy all these requirements.

Compare Database Tables

DatabaseSpy® 2012 displays database comparisons in an intuitive graphical table representation with connecting lines to illustrate column mapping between tables. DatabaseSpy® 2012 automatically maps columns with the same names, or you can drag connecting lines to manually map columns for comparison.

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DatabaseSpy Database Comparison Supported Databases

DatabaseSpy® 2012 supports multiple database types and can compare tables in any of the following:

• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2000, 2005, 2008
• IBM DB2® 8, 9
• IBM DB2 for iSeries® v5.4, 6.1
• Oracle® 9i, 10g, 11g
• Sybase® 12
• MySQL® 4, 5
• PostgreSQL 8
• Microsoft Access™ 2003, 2007

 Click here to download a fully functional, free 30-day trial of Altova® DatabaseSpy® 2012!

When comparing multiple selections in database schemas, you can collapse and expand individual tables to focus on items of interest.

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DatabaseSpy® 2012 can compare different versions of a table in the same database type, or you can even compare and merge the content of equivalent tables and entire database schemas in different database types.

When you compare different database types, DatabaseSpy® 2012 even resolves datatype naming inconsistencies.

This means you can compare the customers table in your SQL Server database with a backup copy, for example, or you can compare the contents of any tables or your entire database schema between IBM DB2 9 and Oracle 11g implementations.

Automatic table mapping options let you instruct DatabaseSpy® 2012 to map columns based on name, datatype, or column position. Numerous additional options let you set preferences for comparison options, XML-aware comparison for columns containing XML data, and display of the Results view.

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If the results of automatic mapping are inaccurate or incomplete, you can also manually map comparisons by dragging connecting lines between table columns. In the screenshot below, the columns for middle initial did not have identical names, so they are mapped manually.

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It’s simple to compare mapped tables by clicking the Start Comparison button in the Database Comparison Toolbar.

Contents of the selected tables are compared and the database comparison map is updated to show comparison results. In the example below the content is not equal.

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Detailed Comparison Results

You can open detailed results windows for each table comparison, and you can filter the results to display or hide your preference of:

• Equal rows
• Unequal rows
• Rows that only contain data in the table on the left
• Rows that only contain data in the table on the right
• Entire columns that contain identical data

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Merge Database Differences

After you identify differences between tables, you can merge content in either direction by updating individual cells or entire tables.

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You can also preview your changes by generating a Mergescript that opens automatically in a new SQL Editor window.

You can even generate a Restore script to document your changes or as a precaution against accidental deletion of critical data.

If you need to perform the same comparison again in the future, you can save database comparison selections in a file to easily reload. Add the database comparison file to your DatabaseSpy® 2012 project so it will always be handy!

See for yourself how productively DatabaseSpy® 2012 can perform your database table comparison and content merging tasks – download a fully-functional 30-day trial today.