General information about databases |
  
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General information about databases |
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Prior to describing the types of differences we want to give a brief definition of "normal" worksheets versus a database
"Normal" worksheets
do not contain column headings and no database structure. For such worksheets, Synkronizer performs a cell-by-cell comparison. As a frequent user of Synkronizer you will soon learn that the data comparison of a "normal" worksheets is not as efficient as a database comparison
Databases
are worksheets that contain data within a database structure. The data must be arranged as follows:
| • | The first row contains unique column names |
| • | The database contains one (or more) column(s) with primary key(s) (unique identification number, article number etc.). A primary key uniquely identifies each data records and facilitates the sorting and synchronizing of your data. The primary key does not need to be a single field (e.g. employee number). It can be constructed with multiple fields (e.g. family name, first name and city) to create a unique identifier and avoid duplicate keys/records |
Below paragraphs describe the difference between a 'duplicate key' and 'duplicate records'
Duplicate keys
Duplicate keys are data records, which contain the same primary key. Assuming the primary key is formed from the family and first name, if you have several customers called "John Miller" in your database, Synkronizer will not know which data records should be compared. Make sure you operate with unique primary keys when working with Synkronizer
Duplicate Records (Redundant records)
Synkronizer also checks whether your database contains duplicate records (or redundant records). These are records where all fields (not just the key fields) are equal. If found these records will be highlighted in gray. Duplicate records do not serve any purpose and should be deleted
The comparison of "databases" is a fast. The databases may be sorted or altered. The inserting and deleting of columns and rows is allowed. Synkronizer will recognize all differences between the two files