Skip a field

wwilkins

I need to keep my primary key. How can I not have it "Server assigned" ?

wwilkins

Also need to skip other fields that link to lookup tables.

Brian Donahue

Thanks fro your question. There are many possible meanings that this question could have, but I'd think both issues could be served by using the "data masking" instructions in the help.

http://documentation.red-gate.com/displ ... ata+source

That way, you can use some existing data in the generated data because you have created a copy of the schema and have configured SQL query generators to pull the original data across.

wwilkins

I Followed your instructions and it looks like the primary key is still "server assigned". I tried it and it did replace my PK with a new reseeded one starting at 1 which will not link correctly to all my other tables related to it.

We do not want to change the PK. on multiple tables in the DB. Am I missing something in the directions?

Brian Donahue

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I will log an enhancement request to allow you to change the server-assigned primary key. It doesn't look to be possible to do this.

wwilkins

I seems like a simple request to SKIP a column but I don't see an option for that.

Brian Donahue

SQL Data Generator cannot leave a column in a table because it is designed to generate realistic test data, and not as a data sanitization application. Red Gate recognize a small market for this, and that is why the help article exists to help you accomplish that in a roundabout way.

SQL Data Generator has a hard-coded "server assigned" generator for IDENTITY columns that you cannot change because identity columns have to conform to the constraint on the server anyway (seed value, increment, and current value). The topic was primarily about that, so I was going to raise a feature request to allow "at your own risk" changes there if there is a need for it.