The 'tablediff' utility is a new feature in SQL Server 2005 used to
compare differences of schema and data between source and destination
table or view. This utility is particularly useful while replicating
data.
You can run this utility from the command line or a batch file.
Example:
Let us use the Customers table of the Northwind database as an example. Do the following :
1. Create another table called CustomerTemp.
SELECT * INTO CustomersTemp FROM Customers
2. Now change data in the CustomersTemp table
UPDATE CustomersTemp
SET City = 'Bern'
WHERE CUSTOMERID = 'ALFKI'
3. Run the TableDiff utility
The syntax for running this utility is as follows :
C:"Program
Files"Microsoft SQL Server"90"COM>tablediff -sourceserver
"SUPROTIM"-sourcedatabase "Northwind" -sourcetable "Customers"
-destinationserver "SUPROTIM" -destinationdatabase "Northwind"
-destinationtable "CustomersTemp"
where SUPROTIM is the
servername, Northwind is the database, Customers is the source table
and CustomerTemp is the destination table
The output is:
Microsoft (R) SQL Server Replication Diff ToolCopyright (C) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
User-specified
agent parameter values:-sourceserver SUPROTIM-sourcedatabase
Northwind-sourcetable Customers-destinationserver
SUPROTIM-destinationdatabase Northwind-destinationtable CustomersTemp
Table
[Northwind].[dbo].[Customers] on SUPROTIM and Table
[Northwind].[dbo].[CustomersTemp] on SUPROTIM have 1 differences.Err
CustomerIDMismatch 'ALFKI'The requested operation took 0.244125 seconds.
If you want to generate the SQL scripts for the differences found, use the -f parameter with the file name:
Example :
C:"Program
Files"Microsoft SQL Server"90"COM>tablediff -sourceserver
"SUPROTIM"-sourcedatabase "Northwind" -sourcetable "Customers"
-destinationserver "SUPROTIM" -destinationdatabase "Northwind"
-destinationtable "CustomersTemp" -f "C:"temp"
