Timestamp as comparison field

DanGoodwin

If there's a timestamp field in the table, does SQL data compare automatically use that to speed up the comparison? And if not, would it be a good idea in a one-way update to simply compare on the timestamp field and then update the records with the different timestamps?

This is for an update of of database over a WAN where there are multiple tables with tens of millions of records. I'm looking for anything that could speed up the process, reduce band-width useage or lighten the server load.

Thanks,

Matthew Flatt

Hi Dan,

SQL Data Compare will set the Primary key or an Index as the comparison key when it finds them.

You can select customer comparison keys or select a specific index by using the Tables and Views tab.

You could try also try setting a Where clause from the same tab to eliminate older data rows which you know will never change.

A further option would be to un check the Show identical values in results from the Options tab under Comparison Behaviour and select Use Checksum Comparison.

I hope this helps,