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Yes, change tracking appears to be the way to go. I was concerned that it may be overkill. Will change tracking overly burden the server? Thank you for the link. This will definitely get me started.
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Yes, change tracking appears to be the way to go. I was concerned that it may be overkill. Will change tracking overly burden the server? Thank you for the link. This will definitely get me started.

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Will change tracking overly burden the server? 
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No, it's light but will require disk space to store all the changes. Luckily there's a cleanup task to avoid storing old change tracks.
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> Will change tracking overly burden the server?

No, it's light but will require disk space to store all the changes. Luckily there's a cleanup task to avoid storing old change tracks.

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I have been tasked with creating a rudimentary change tracking system for tables in our databases. There are about a dozen tables to be &nbsp;checked with anywhere from 20 - 100 fields per table. In each table there is datetime stamp when last modified. What is the most efficient way of querying these tables looking for value changes in any of the columns? Do I need to go through each column? I can use the date/time stamp column to first identify the rows that have changed values but then how do I identify which columns have been changed?
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I have been tasked with creating a rudimentary change tracking system for tables in our databases. There are about a dozen tables to be  checked with anywhere from 20 - 100 fields per table. In each table there is datetime stamp when last modified. What is the most efficient way of querying these tables looking for value changes in any of the columns? Do I need to go through each column? I can use the date/time stamp column to first identify the rows that have changed values but then how do I identify which columns have been changed?

Checking for column changes SQL 2014

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning. Major improvements include the  Always On technologies and support for unstructured data types.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft SQL Server is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.SQL Server is available in multiple versions, typically identified by release year, and versions are subdivided into editions to distinguish between product functionality. Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning.