How Does DB Data Difftective Work?

With DB Data Difftective you can compare the data in a source database and a destination database and specify which values should match. You can then either update the destination database to synchronize the databases or generate a update SQL script.

For example, you might want to synchronize databases to update a staging server with a copy of the production data. You might also synchronize one or more tables to populate them with reference data from another database.

Set Up a Data Compare Project

You specify a source and a destination database to compare. DB Data Difftective will now connect to both databases and will automatically map the tables based on the table names. Columns will be mapped also. You can customize the mappings for tables and columns when that is desirable. DB Data Difftective will automatically choose a default comparison key based on primary key constraints and/or unique constraints for you. Eventually you can edit the default field settings of a table for example to include or exclude parts of tables from your comparison.

Compare the Data in the Two Databases

After you set up the data sources, you can start comparing the data. Click the Compare button to start the comparison. A dialog will display the comparison progress.

View the Data Differences

When the comparison is finished, you can view the data differences between the two databases. DB Data Difftective lists each table that you compared and its status. You can also view results for the records within each table, grouped by status.

Synchronize Database Data

After you view the differences, you can update the destination database to match the source database for some or all of the objects or records that are different. You can update the destination directly by connecting to the database or you can let DB Data Difftective generate a update SQL script with insert, update and delete statements. You might want to generate a SQL script so that you or someone else can review it before you apply the changes.

Reuse Your Comparison Settings

DB Data Difftective is project-based. A DB Data Difftective project holds information like tables to compare, mappings, source database connection and destination database connection. You can open a project of an earlier comparison and do a new comparison and/or synchronization with the same settings. When the structure of your underlying database has changed, DB Data Difftective automatically detects that and will modify your settings when that is required.


How it works but now with screenshots? View our short screen-by-screen introductory walk-through.

For comparing and synchronizing database schemas, check out DB Data Difftective's companion product, DB Schema Difftective.