How to compare data between two table in different databases using Sql Server 2008?

Question

select * 
from (
      select 'T1' T, *
      from DB1.dbo.Table
      except
      select 'T2' T, *
      from DB2.dbo.Table
     ) as T
union all
select * 
from (
      select 'T2' T, *
      from DB2.dbo.Table
      except
      select 'T1' T, *
      from DB1.dbo.Table
     ) as T
ORDER BY 2,3,4, ..., 1  -- make T1 and T2 to be close in output 2,3,4 are UNIQUE KEY SEGMENTS

Test code:

declare @T1 table (ID int)
declare @T2 table (ID int)

insert into @T1 values(1),(2)
insert into @T2 values(2),(3)

select * 
from (
      select *
      from @T1
      except
      select *
      from @T2
     ) as T
union all
select * 
from (
      select *
      from @T2
      except
      select *
      from @T1
     ) as T

Result:

ID
-----------
1
3

Note: It can take long time to compare big table, when developing “tuned” solution or refactorig, which will give same result as REFERERCE – it may be wise to chekc simple parameters first: like

select count(t.*) from (
   select count(*) c0, SUM(BINARY_CHECKSUM(*)%1000000) c1 FROM T_REF_TABLE 
   -- select 12345 c0, -214365454 c1 -- constant values FROM T_REF_TABLE 
   except 
   select count(*) , SUM(BINARY_CHECKSUM(*)%1000000) FROM T_WORK_COPY 
) t

When this is empty, you have probably things under controll, and may be you can modify when you fail you will see “constant values FROM T_REF” to isert to save even more time for next check!!!

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