Question

The sp_addarticle stored procedure, used to create publication articles in SQL Server speak, has a parameter @pre_creation_cmd through which dropping the table or truncating data at the target server can be specified for a snapshot. What circumstances are appropriate for each?

Answer 1

@pre_creation_cmd accepts one of four values:

• NONE
• DELETE
• DROP
• TRUNCATE

DELETE TABLE

Assume that your Published article
data is filtered and that the
corresponding table in the
Subscription receives data from other
sources, perhaps another Publication
for example. Using the DELETE
operation for this parameter would
delete “only” the data the meets the
criteria of the filter definition,
leaving the remaining data at the
Subscriber intact.

TRUNCATE TABLE

Removes all rows from a table without
logging the individual row deletions.
TRUNCATE TABLE is similar to the
DELETE statement with no WHERE clause;
however, TRUNCATE TABLE is faster and
uses fewer system and transaction log
resources.

DROP TABLE

Removes one or more table definitions
and all data, indexes, triggers,
constraints, and permission
specifications for those tables.