Sorry to keep asking so many questions, but you guys always seem to be so nice and helpful...
I need a way to verify that a database file is in a somewhat stable state...stable as in it has all of the correct tables, and each table has all of the correct fields. The data (if any) that is in the database needs to stay unchanged (unless extra tables are present, those would need to be removed).
Thanks to sknake, I think I have a grip on making the tables and columns appear if they are missing...the SQL syntax I am learning, slowly...
The bigger question is, what's the best way to check all of this...I thought about using a list of all the fields and all the tables that should exist and comparing it to the fields that actually do exist by using the FindAll method...the problem is that the solution that I am working on is a copy of a solution that I already made...there are 25 tables and I couldn't even fathom to guess how many fields...if not over 100, pretty close...
I want to be able to check all of this because I'm trying to think ahead with updates...if in the future I want to add a new table, or change a table or merge tables or drop tables from the solution I need a way to do that for users who already have data in their database file...same for those who backup their database file and then need to recover it...
So instead of making a list that is literally hundreds of items in length...is there a better way to do this? Maybe create a blank, never used, data table that is fully and correctly structured and compare that one to the one that is used? Is that possible?
Any ideas?