Home/ Questions/Q 898533
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-15T15:03:32+00:00

I have a mysql database. What I’d like to do is perform an arbitrary

  • 0

I have a mysql database. What I’d like to do is perform an arbitrary action on it, and then figure out what changed. Something like this:

//assume connection to db already established

before();//saves db state
perform_action();//does stuff to db
diff();//prints what happened

I’d want it to output something like:

Row added in table_0 ]details]
Row added in table_1 [details]
Row modified in table_5 [details]
Row deleted in table_2 [details]

Any ideas?

To further clarify: You know how on stackoverflow, if you check a post’s edits, you can see red lines/green highlights indicating what’s been changed? I want something like that, but for mysql databases.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I think normally your application would log any interesting changes as it makes them. Or you would set up history tables for everything with datetimes.

    To do it the way you describe, you could dump the contents of the database into a file before and after your action and do a diff on the two files. In php, you can check out xdiff: http://us.php.net/manual/en/book.xdiff.php

    If this is something you’re doing only occasionally in controlled circumstances to test some queries you’re not sure about, you can dump and diff on the command line.

    • 0