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AccdbMerge logo for MS Access
aka AccdbMerge
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Data diff tab

  • Opened from:
  • Applicable tab-specific toolbar actions:
    • Refresh information from database. Current position and page will be reset
    • Export to Excel
    • Copy selection to clipboard
    • Show all, new and changed, new, changed records. Current position and page will be reset
    • Jump to the next, previous change
    • Select all, none, invert selection on the left, all, none, invert selection on the right side
    • Merge left selected records to the right side, right selected records to the left side
    • Delete selected records on the left side, selected records on the right side
  • Applicable object types: Tables and Queries

This tab allows to compare and merge data for a particular table or query (for query only comparison). Highlights new and changed records, specific changed fields in the changed row:

for MS Access, data diff tab

Vertical toolbar between two panels contains additional tab-specific actions:

  • 'Column mapping' opens Custom data diff dialog to specify key columns, which columns to show and how to map them if you want to compare columns with changed names
  • or 'Compare definition' opens table/query definition in Table structure diff tab for tables and Text diff for queries
  • Ignore case (for the text data)
  • Ignore leading and trailing whitespaces (for the text data, this option also makes NULL and empty string to be considered as equal)

Each row has a selection checkbox nearby - so you can select the number of rows with the mouse or with the Space button from the keyboard and do some further actions with selected rows - merge or delete. Column headers for non-key fields also have selection checkboxes - so you can merge only required fields.

Top panel contains:

  • Paging control with page number and page size (on the right side). You can disable paging by specifying 0 as page size. But for large amount of data it is highly recommended to use paging for better performance
  • Changes summary for each side: total, new, changed and new+changed row count for the whole table and for current page, selected row count
  • Selected column names

Bottom panel shows selected line from both sides, providing easier comparison of changed values.

Data grid key columns are marked with a 🔑 key character. Data grid allows sorting on key fields and comparable columns, by mouse click on column name. Sorted columns are marked with a ▲ black triangle showing the sort direction. Sortable columns are marked with empty triangles. Not every column can be sortable. To be sortable, a column must exist on both sides, it must have the same data type on both sides and this data type must not be a binary, attachment, multivalue or GUID.

See also:

  • How it works - Data providing more details on how data diff works, particularly it provides explanations for No comparison key(s). Result can be truncated. and Sorting on non-key column(s) warnings
  • Known Issues to check for possible other limitations and issues

Free version limitations:

  • Table must have a compatible primary key
  • Sorting allowed only for primary key column
  • Not available for Queries
  • Limited paging
  • No bottom panel
  • No Excel export
  • No jump to the next/previous change
  • No changes highlight in scrollbar
  • Vertical toolbar has only ignore case/whitespace actions

Last updated: 2023-09-21