SQL Data Compare showing differences in 2 identical databases

Category: Troubleshooting & error messages
Date: 15 Jun 2009
Product: SQL Data Compare
When comparing 2 identical databases, SQL Data Compare may show differences.

This behaviour occurs for one of the following reasons:

1. The 'Trim trailing spaces' option is NOT enabled.
- By default, SQL Data Compare includes spaces and other white space of text fields in the comparison. Likewise, comparing a fixed-length field in one database to a variable-length field will cause differences due to spaces. The "Trim trailing spaces" option will allow you to ignore these differences in the comparison of text data.

2. The 'Force binary collation' which forces a case sensitive comparison IS enabled.
- By default, SQL Data Compare uses the collation of a column to decide whether or not to compare data case-sensitively. Most SQL Server databases default to a "case-insensitive" collation, but this can be overridden using the "Force binary collation" option in SQL Data Compare.

Click on the 'Edit Project' button which opens the Project Configuration dialog box. Select the 'Options' tab. In the 'Comparison Behavior' section ensure the 'Trim trailing spaces' option is enabled and the 'Force binary collation' option is not enabled.

Document ID: KB200906000410 Keywords: REDG, LLSQ, DCMP, Gate, products, Data, Compare, differences, id

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