Data preservation question
Brian Donahue
Posts: 6,590 Bronze 1
Hi Brandon,
That's a good question. The current version of SQL Compare will alter
database objects unless there is a reason to rebuild the table, most
commonly because the 'force column order to be identical' option is on. Even
if the table needs to be rebuilt, the data will be preserved.
The only caveat is that if the table has a column that has been renamed.
There may be data loss in that case because SQL Compare doesn't know that
the column has been renamed, it only knows that there is a column missing on
one side, and one added on the other. If the names of the renamed columns
are 'similar', SQL Compare will try to preserve the data again as a
workaround, but that's not entirely reliable.
You should probably review your migration scripts before they're run if
you are concerned about data loss.
Regards,
Brian Donahue
Red Gate Technical Support
"Brandon Brockhoeft" <bbrockhoeft@futron.com> wrote in message
news:xdXgUYqjEHA.1592@server53...
> I'm interested in purchasing SQL Compare for use at work. When
synchronzing
> databases using the software, does it drop and re-create tables or
actually
> modify the design of pre-existing tables? I basically want to know if and
> how data is preserved when tables are synchronized.
>
>
That's a good question. The current version of SQL Compare will alter
database objects unless there is a reason to rebuild the table, most
commonly because the 'force column order to be identical' option is on. Even
if the table needs to be rebuilt, the data will be preserved.
The only caveat is that if the table has a column that has been renamed.
There may be data loss in that case because SQL Compare doesn't know that
the column has been renamed, it only knows that there is a column missing on
one side, and one added on the other. If the names of the renamed columns
are 'similar', SQL Compare will try to preserve the data again as a
workaround, but that's not entirely reliable.
You should probably review your migration scripts before they're run if
you are concerned about data loss.
Regards,
Brian Donahue
Red Gate Technical Support
"Brandon Brockhoeft" <bbrockhoeft@futron.com> wrote in message
news:xdXgUYqjEHA.1592@server53...
> I'm interested in purchasing SQL Compare for use at work. When
synchronzing
> databases using the software, does it drop and re-create tables or
actually
> modify the design of pre-existing tables? I basically want to know if and
> how data is preserved when tables are synchronized.
>
>
This discussion has been closed.
