The SQL Server Object Comparison (SQLComp) tool is used to perform object comparisons across a subset of SQL Server object types: stored procedures, views, tables, publications, or articles. A user can compare a set of objects in a source database to a corresponding set of objects in a target database (the objects must have the same name and object type as the source and target databases), or a single source object to a target object of the same object type (the name of the source object may be different from the name of the target object in this case).
Server administrators will find this tool useful for troubleshooting system problems. Additionally, client/server application developers can use the SQL Server Object Comparison tool during development to debug and test applications written for SQL Server.
The tool supports comparisons for the following SQL Server object types:
This includes a comparison of the indexes on a table, the properties on a table, the column definitions for a table, and any recordset associated with the table.
This is the default, with options available to check indexes, properties, and data.
This compares the text of the source and target view, with options for comparing the view's result data, table definition, or table definition properties.
This verifies that the text of the source and target stored procedures is identical, ignoring the stored procedure name.
This allows a user to compare a subset of objects at a source database to a set of corresponding objects at a target database. The objects are expected to have the same name and object type at the source and the target.
When comparing publications, the tool will verify that the source tables for each article in the publication are identical to the target table at the destination database (the target database is the subscribing database and contains the destination table for its subscription to the source article). The tool will compare nonpartitioned articles, as well as vertically and/or horizontally partitioned articles, to their subscriptions at a target database.