Comparing two databases?

[LauraB]

Our office recently upgraded computers and due to the ill-managed migration
process, the old version of the db was left online along with the one on the
new computer. Additionally, not everyone's shortcuts were updated, so I
believe that both versions of the db have been in use. (I know. Aside from
wanting to whack the migration guy on the head, I'm trying to be very zen and
moving forward.)

I have of course stopped all editing, and am analyzing both databases. I've
been doing some manual investigation and I think I know which database has
the most data (it's overwhelmingly in one direction, so that's nice), but my
question is...

Is there a tool or add-in that can compare two databases? I thought it
would be nice to use a more official process to double-check what I think I'm
seeing.

Thanks!

 

[Klatuu]

If you happen to have Visual SourceSafe, you can put both versions in it and
it will do a comparison and show all differences (don't include data)

If not, check this site:
http://www.componentsource.com/products/fms-total-access-detective/index.html
It is for Total Access Detective. It will do a compare, but it starts at
$195.00 and only goes through 2003.

 

[LauraB]

Thanks for the quick answer.

For Visual Source Safe,
by 'doesn't include data' does that mean say that it would show that one
file has a query, table, macro, etc. that the other file does not.
But it wouldn't for example show that one file has a different value in the
name field of customer ID 205.
How about whether one file has more records in the customer table than the
other? I'm guessing "no" since this is data?

Thx!

 

[Klatuu]

This would be a two step process.
You don't store table data in VSS, just the table structures. Those you
could compare.

When it comes to data, you would have to write some queries to compare the
data in the tables that would look for missing records or records with
different values.

VSS will compare all objects in the two versions and point out differences.

 

[LauraB]

Great, thanks for the info.

Yes, as defined that way, there should only be changes in data in my two
databases, since the users don't have access to changing the structures, so
I'll continue with my manually writing queries to compare.

Thanks!