Feature Requests

godot

(1) Column title highlighting when that column has data differences:

It would be helpful when looking at a grid of data discrepancies to have the column title labels be highlighted in some way to indicate when AT LEAST one row in that column has different data.

That way, just by scrolling horizontally, you could easily see how many columns have differing data and whether you need to scroll down to see what the differences are.

I have found this feature extremely helpful in other types programs that do comparisons (e.g. BeyondCompare).

(2) Method to bring data differences in a column to the top:

It would be handy to be able to select a column with data discrepancies and sort it so that all of the discrepancies in that column sort to the top.

It would save time reviewing a result set with lots of rows that has scattered differences in the column you are focusing on.

richardjm

Well you may be interested in a couple of the changes we have planned for the Alpha release of SQL Data Compare 6. Firstly we have a couple of buttons that you can use to scan from one difference to the next, up or down the results set.

Also we have a new view which is provisionally called 'pivot view' - or at least that's how I term it in the code. What this does is displays the columns as rows and the rows as columns in the results set. Once the brain has got over the initial 'what on earth is going on'-factor it makes a lot more sense.

We've also improved the textual difference viewer and the colouring to make changes stand out more.

If you want to be part of the Alpha program just drop me an email richard.mitchell@red-gate.com and I'll make sure you're notified when we release ( which hopefully will be very soon now ).

Richard

godot

Richard,

Thanks for the reply, but it sounds like neither of these alpha features will do what I was hoping to be able to do.

richardjm

We did consider a feature called 'hide identical columns' however the problem was when viewing 'All rows' which is the default view of a table. If there had been any insertions or deletions then no columns could be hidden at all. This being the most likely case the button did nothing on most table views so we have dropped it for the moment.

If there is enough of an outcry for this feature or similar we could re-instate it into the product.

Highlighting the columns that have changed is not something that has been suggested before although I can see the possibilities.

Richard

godot

richardjm wrote:

We did consider a feature called 'hide identical columns' however the problem was when viewing 'All rows' which is the default view of a table. If there had been any insertions or deletions then no columns could be hidden at all. This being the most likely case the button did nothing on most table views so we have dropped it for the moment.

If there is enough of an outcry for this feature or similar we could re-instate it into the product.
Richard

Hiding identical columns seems like more work than simply providing a passive display paradigm to allow the user to know which columns have data discrepancies. And that, combined with the ability to group/sort the differences in a column to the top would provide a big boost in my productivity when I use the product.

As far as "outcry" goes, I'm sure that has to be taken into account, but limiting new features to only those features ignores the possible productivity enhancements of other, unusual but useful ideas.

Understand, these features are not my original ideas, I have used these features in other products and found them to be very useful.

Thanks for your time in discussing these issues with me.

richardjm

You're welcome.

To be honest we've never come across this idea before and I'm certainly not going to dismiss it. I really like users to get involved in the products, it's one of the reasons I like developing really, developing something that never gets used is my idea of hell.

I really hope you take part in the Alpha program.

Richard

godot

Richard,

Thanks for replying.

Nice to hear you're a developer like me.

I would take part in the Alpha program, but I am BURIED and can allow nothing to take time away from my most immediate concerns.

Good luck.

P.S. I never mentioned it, but I love Red Gate's products. I use both Compare and Data Compare extensively.

rgribble

If it helps, i too think these would be useful features

And surely it cant be that hard to just make the colum,n header a different shaded colour, if one or more records has a discrepancy in that column

A way to sort them to the top would also be nice, as the OP suggested, this would enhance productivity when wanting to look through all of the records that had a difference in the "Total Cost" field (as an example)