Can I use Data Compare to find duplicate records?

MikeAmodeo

I came late into a situation where an automated process was populating a database and there weren't sufficiently identified Unique Indexes to prevent the creation of duplicate records and now I'm hoping that Data Compare can help identify duplicate records so that they can be removed and indexing changes applied.

Eddie D

Hi MikeAmodeo,

It maybe possible for you to use SQL Data Compare to identify duplicate records.

Create a new empty database. 

First using SQL Data Compare's sister product, SQL Compare.  Compare the database with the suspect duplicate records to the new empty database and deploy the database objects or just the database tables to the empty database.

Using SQL Data Compare, compare the database with the suspect duplicate records to the new database with the empty tables.

Review the comparison results for each table which will identify the duplicate records.

The help documentation for SQL Data Compare is here look for the sections on 'Setting the comparison' and 'Reviewing the comparison results'.

The are also videos on using SQL Data Compare available in the Redgate University.

Many Thanks
Eddie

MikeAmodeo

great feedback and very helpful, thank you.