Again, as far as I am concerned, we can "close" this one. We are using simple num_rows count. On 2/25/06, stephen booth <stephenbooth.uk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On 22/02/06, Bobak, Mark <Mark.Bobak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > I think you need to have a conversation with your boss that goes > something > > like this: > > > > "Hey boss, you can ask me to do something, or you can tell me how to do > > it....but you can't do both!" ;-) > > I'm inclined to agree, although I know that sometimes it's just not > possible. > > > > > Ok, here's an actual attempt to answer your question: > > Spool contents of table to a file, compute md5 sum. > > Spool contents of other table to file, compute md5 sum. > > Compare md5 sums. > > > > Could do that, there's plenty of utils out there (many of them free > downloads) for calculating checksums. If your boss wants something > programatic looking you can always encapsulate the calls to SQL*Plus > to spool the files, the calls to the checksum generator and the check > to see their they're the same into a shell script or even a PERL > script. I do think that using diff would be better, checksums, by > their nature, aren't 100% reliable as it's possble (but unlikley) that > two different sources can give the same result. > > You say, in an earlier mail, there's no database link. Can you create > one? Even just for the duration of the script (create, do the check, > drop)? That way you could use the minus set operator. > > Stephen > -- > It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption. > > http://stephensorablog.blogspot.com/ > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- Regards, Ranko Mosic Contract Senior Oracle DBA B. Eng, Oracle 10g, 9i Certified Database Professional Phone: 416-450-2785 email: mosicr@xxxxxxxxxx http://ca.geocities.com/mosicr@xxxxxxxxxx/ContractSeniorOracleDBARankoMosicMain.html