Timestamp as comparison field

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,
Dan

Comments

  • 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,
    Matthew Flatt
    Redgate Foundry
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