Hi all! I'd like to reopen my question, which was closed as off-topic:

programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/329556/…

I edited it and add a better explanation of what I'm asking.

pls tell me if it's OK now, and, if not, why is still off-topic. Thanks!

Happy Coffee Day.

Merry Tea Time!

My brain hurts with comparing tables.

I was using excepts but it takes forever.

I was thinking I could union all and look for duplicates, but I don't know how to do it. Everyone seems to think it's a dumb question.

I think I should take a walk and drink some tea

It's not a dumb question to me, but what you need is like a counter, maybe something like this? w3schools.com/sql/sql_func_count.asp

gotta learn sql better...

umm, why would you ever compare tables in the same db?

it means you're duping data somewhere and there's no clear source of truth.

It's not the same db, that's why.

I want to make sure the two tables contain exactly the same data.

But I've got around 50 tables to compare, so I'd like something generic that I can reuse for all the tables without having to make a bunch of changes.

I ended up speeding up the excepts by inserting the data into a table instead of using a view, but it's still not particularly clear what is different between which things. I mean, it returns the row, but I don't know which it is from and I have to then go back and look at both to see which is different.

So conceptually what I'd like to do is Union All, Group By all the columns and look for Count = 1. Or something like that.

Except then I'd still want to have the source on the row, so it would then become Group By everything but the column with the label for the source.

Except isn't too bad if I then add a label to each except statement and then Union All.

But it's not pretty.

Woo! I just got promoted!

As in signed the paperwork. It's official starting October.

Congratulations

Thanks!

You need to sign paperwork for a promotion?

I'd be suspicious, but congratulations!

What's your new job?

@KitZ.Fox congratulations! :)

@ThomasOwens same as before but level two now. I have to sign to accept more money, oddly.