Comparision Feature Request

ligtorn

It would be great if the object comparision window had an options of applying Custom SQL Formatting to the objects which are compared. (The custom formatting shouldn't end up in any syncronizing scripts. They should only exist in the comparision)

Sometimes it can be pretty hard to compare 2 stored procedures, if someone alters the formatting of one of the procs. If it was possible to compare custom formatted sprocs, it would be a lot easier to review code changes.

e.g.

some developers like constructs like the following

SELECT name, object_id, principal_id, schema_id, parent_object_id, type,
type_desc, create_date, modify_date, is_ms_shipped, is_published,
is_schema_published, lob_data_space_id, filestream_data_space_id,
max_column_id_used, lock_on_bulk_load, uses_ansi_nulls, is_replicated,
has_replication_filter, is_merge_published, is_sync_tran_subscribed,
has_unchecked_assembly_data, text_in_row_limit,
large_value_types_out_of_row
FROM sys.tables

and others like this one

SELECT
NAME,
OBJECT_ID,
principal_id,
SCHEMA_ID,
parent_object_id,
TYPE,
type_desc,
create_date,
modify_date,
is_ms_shipped,
is_published,
is_schema_published,
lob_data_space_id,
filestream_data_space_id,
max_column_id_used,
lock_on_bulk_load,
uses_ansi_nulls,
is_replicated,
has_replication_filter,
is_merge_published,
is_sync_tran_subscribed,
has_unchecked_assembly_data,
text_in_row_limit,
large_value_types_out_of_row
FROM
sys.tables

This code restructure leads to a lot of change lines, which are very hard to compare. If both statements was formatted according to a custom formatting, it would be very easy to verify that the statements are equal.

This is of cause not the only scenerio, where this custom formatting could clarify modified code.

David Atkinson

Thanks for the request. We'll definitely consider this, especially since SQL Prompt and SQL Refactor current have this ability!

Kind regards

David Atkinson
Product Manager
Red Gate Software

ligtorn

Can anybody tell if this is on the drawing board for sql compare 9 or 8.5. As a reviewer and the person in charge of merging databases, this feature can save a lot of work. Many of my coworkers are very happy with code formatting, which hide and makes it difficult to see the real difference between 2 objects