Reputation: 11218

Database compare tools

My company has a number of relatively small Access databases (2-5MB) that control our user assisted design tools. Naturally these databases evolve over time as data bugs are found and fixed and as the schema changes to support new features in the tools. Can anyone recommend a database diff tool to compare both the data and schema from one version of the database to the next? Any suggestions will be appreciated: free, open source, or commercial.

Upvotes: 3

Answers (7)

honzajde

Reputation: 2398

http://www.diffkit.org

Features

High performance, for large datasets (+10MM rows).

Very low memory overhead, even on very large datasets.

High quality-- comprehensive embedded regression test suite for the application/framework.

Java run everywhere (tm) — Linux, Solaris, OS X, Windows, etc.

Cross database-- Oracle, MySQL, DB2, and any JDBC datasource.

Command-line driven; no GUI needed; can run in headless environments.

XML configuration file driven.

Free Open Source Software.

Apache License, Version 2.0.

Clean Object Oriented Design make extension easy.

Easily embeddable as a Java library (jar).

Upvotes: 0

Darryl Hein

Reputation: 144937

It's not a perfect solution, but I often export both databases as txt/SQL files and then use a diff program, such as the one that comes with TortoiseSVN. You can then see all of the differences. It doesn't automatically create the SQL though to sync the dbs.

Upvotes: 0

edosoft

Reputation: 17271

If you're looking for a free alternative to Red Gate's most excellent SQL Compare, you might want to check SQLDBDigg made by SQLDBTools. It's what I used until I caved and bought SQL Compare.

Upvotes: 0

Vitor Silva

Reputation: 17612

I use Red Gate Sql Compare for comparing schemas. It also has an interesting feature that allows you to save a snapshot of the schema which you can then use in later diffs. for example compare the schema of today with the schema of a month ago.

Upvotes: 5

Ryan Eastabrook

Reputation: 4215

I use ApexSQL Diff. It is an excellent tool for doing just what you're describing...compare schema, compare data, generate change scripts. It not free, but it works well.

NOTE: ApexSQL Diff only works with SQL Server.

Upvotes: 1