>Looking for some basic concepts. I'm planning on developing a tool that will take snapshots of tables after data changes and compare them in order to develop some delta results. These results will be used primarily by already-existing calculation processes to verify financial balances, help determine impact on the overall system, create cases for regression testing, etc. I will include the ability to create sample data based on specific test case criteria. Before I start getting into it, I was hoping for some general feedback.

Hi Renoir,

My suggestion would be, instead of comparing existing data, save an "audit trail" as the data is being changed, i.e., use a trigger to store information about when data was changed to what table. Unlike the more or less primitive example in my introductory article - http://www.utmag.com/wconnect/wc.dll?9,7,10,1476 - you should aim for having data in a machine-readable format.

Otherwise, make sure that each table has a PK, on which you can compare different versions, with standard SQL commands.

HTH,

Hilmar.