Doing a comparison on two csv files with no Primary Key

Question

I'm wondering if in SSIS there is a way to compare two csv files(with the same structure) with no reference key to make a record unique.

To give you a better picture from what I mean; In initial load we load data from a csv file into a table, in the subsequent loads, we will get another csv file (same format) that can have different records. We should compare what we have in the table vs. what exist in the new version of the csv file and only load the changed sub set. If there is a new records, it should be inserted, if update, it should be updated, if record deleted in the source, it should be marked as inactive in the table.

Now my questions are:

• Is there any way to compare two csv files in SSIS, while there is no key to make the records unique?
• How can we compare two tables in SQL Server, while there is no key to make records unique?

The volume of data in the csv file is quite high, more than 20 millions records!

Any idea is appreciated.

Thank you,

Nazila

Answer 1

If you have your first CSV loaded into a table, you can just as easily load the other one into a staging table (presumably with the same structure as the 'real' one). Then you can get the new rows by

SELECT * FROM staging_table
EXCEPT
SELECT * FROM real_table
;

Rows missing from the new CSV can be get reversing the two sides around EXCEPT. However, given the lack of a key on the staging table (and hopefully not on the real one - it's not clear from your question), deleting rows based on this comparison can be painful, especially with so many rows.

You can drop the staging table once you have finished.

(As far as I see, this approach will work in any RDBMS.)

Answer 2

I also wrote an article about comparing two data sets using Excel, text editor or database engine. For your volume of data it is clear that, from the three options, only the database engine would be suitable. Unless you use some SSIS feature (I don't have any knowledge about SSIS), then you have to compare the two data sets after they are loaded in the database. I see two options: a) you use the hash value representing that row, and compare between real table and temporary table, example:

select * from real_table r where not exists
    (select 1 from temp_value t where t.hash_value = r.hash_value)

b) you use the database engine power to compare in real time, by running the following example:

select * from real_table minus select * from temp_table;
select * from temp_table minus select * from real_table;

If you need to, you can specify exact columns set instead of "*".

The delete: a) replace "select *" with "delete"; b) without having a reference column for the different rows, you need to write with Transact-SQL a procedure using a "cursor for update", and then delete where "current of" cursor.

Extra - my article with other comparison tools (Excel, notepad++) and simple database comparing functionality:

http://efficient-work.blogspot.com/2012/10/compare-two-sets-of-data.html