SQLEditor: Merging documents

Although SQLEditor doesn’t include a facility to merge documents directly, you can achieve this task by using copy and paste.

See also: SQLEditor: Copy and Paste, foreign keys which covers how SQLEditor behaves when you copy and paste foreign keys.

The main problem is what happens when a table in document A has the same name as a table in document B.

Possible Cases

I have two documents that have no conflicting tables

This is the simplest case, simply select all of the objects, choose Edit->copy and then Edit->Paste into the new document

I have some conflicting tables, but I don’t need relationships between objects in different documents

Use the same method, but note that conflicting tables will be renamed.

I have some conflicting tables and I need to have tables referencing between different documents

This is the most complicated case, an example might be where two people are working on a database and there is a single main table that both reference from their own areas.

The easiest way to do this is to use SQLEditor’s reconnection on paste system.

We’re going to merge Document B into Document A.

In this example a single tables, Table2, is shared between both documents and linked to by different objects in each.

Document A:

Document B:

We look at any shared objects to make sure that they have all of the fields that are necessary. In this case note that Table2 is shared between A and B and has the correct id column in both versions.

Now we copy Table1 only. (Table2 is already present in Document A).

Document A afterwards:

Isn’t this very complicated? Make it simpler!

Yes it is complicated. (Sorry!)

Proper merging is high on the feature request list and is something that is being actively looked at.

I want to drag instead of using the clipboard

As an alternative to copy/paste you can also drag with the option or alt key held down.

This works otherwise in exactly the same way