Comparing data across sources

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Compare data between source and target databases to identify differences in table structures, row counts, and data values.

By comparing data, you can validate data consistency and identify discrepancies across different storage formats and environments. Whether you're verifying a data migration, confirming that archived data matches production records, or ensuring extract files contain accurate information, you can compare data from any combination of databases, archive files, and extract files.

You can configure customized comparison requests with flexible table mapping, apply subsetting and sorting criteria to focus on specific data subsets, and view detailed results in an interactive interface that highlights differences.

By automating data validation workflows that would otherwise be time-consuming and error-prone when performed manually, you can compare data to maintain data quality across systems, quickly identify issues during migrations or synchronization processes, and ensure data integrity throughout your organization's data lifecycle. The comprehensive comparison results provide the insights you need to confidently verify data accuracy and take corrective action when discrepancies are detected.

Important: Each comparison that you generate is temporary. Comparison results are not retained after you navigate away from the page.

Creating a data comparison

To compare two sets of data:

  1. From the navigation menu, click Workflow icon Workflow > Compare data.
  2. Click New comparison.
  3. Select the type of comparison you want to perform:
    • Compare two source files
    • Compare a source file to a database
    • Compare two databases
  4. Select your source and target comparison endpoints:
    • For each database, select the connection and schema you want to compare.
    • For each source file, select an existing archive or extract file in the system.
    Click Next.
  5. Select the specific tables that you want to compare from each specified data source.
  6. Select one or more matching keys that will be used as a basis for comparison between the two tables. Map keys are taken from column names in source 1. Click Next.
  7. Optionally, define subset conditions. If you are looking at a large data set, it is best to limit the size of your comparison to 100 or fewer records. To define a subset:
    1. Click Add condition.
    2. Use the condition builder tool to create one or more conditions that define inclusion in the subset. Select properties, operators, and values that match the data records you want to compare.
  8. Define how the data will be sorted, based on the match keys you selected earlier. Click Next.
  9. Review the comparison settings that you have defined. Click Create.

Viewing a comparison

To view the results after generating a data comparison:

  1. Review the summary provided in the comparison table row:
    • Table pairs: The two data tables you compared.
    • Total number of rows in each source.
    • The number of rows that could not be matched for comparison.
    • The number of rows that were equal between the two tables.
    • The number of rows that were different between the two tables.
    • The number of rows that were duplicated between the two tables.
  2. Browse a sample of the compared data:
    1. Click the View sample icon View sample icon at the end of the row.
    2. Browse the compared data from the tables in each of the categories (all, equal, different, unmatched, and duplicate).
    3. Click X to close the comparison view.