Easily show rows that are different between two tables or queries

This can be handled using EXCEPT and/or INTERSECT. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188055.aspx

First find all records that are in table1 that are not in table 2, then find all records that are in table 2 that are not in table one.

SELECT * FROM table1
EXCEPT
SELECT * FROM table2

UNION

SELECT * FROM table2
EXCEPT
SELECT * FROM table1

There is undoubtedly a more efficient way to do this, but it is the first "quick and dirty" solution off the top of my head. Also, I do not recommend using a * wildcard, but it suits here for brevity.

Alternately, you could use an INTERSECT operator and exclude all the results from it.

You don't need 30 join conditions for a FULL OUTER JOIN here.

You can just Full Outer Join on the PK, preserve rows with at least one difference with WHERE EXISTS (SELECT A.* EXCEPT SELECT B.*) and use CROSS APPLY (SELECT A.* UNION ALL SELECT B.*) to unpivot out both sides of the JOINed rows into individual rows.

WITH TableA(Col1, Col2, Col3) 
     AS (SELECT 'Dog',1,1     UNION ALL 
         SELECT 'Cat',27,86   UNION ALL 
         SELECT 'Cat',128,92), 
     TableB(Col1, Col2, Col3) 
     AS (SELECT 'Dog',1,1     UNION ALL 
         SELECT 'Cat',27,105  UNION ALL 
         SELECT 'Lizard',83,NULL) 
SELECT CA.*
FROM   TableA A 
       FULL OUTER JOIN TableB B 
         ON A.Col1 = B.Col1 
            AND A.Col2 = B.Col2 
/*Unpivot the joined rows*/
CROSS APPLY (SELECT 'TableA' AS what, A.* UNION ALL
             SELECT 'TableB' AS what, B.*) AS CA     
/*Exclude identical rows*/
WHERE  EXISTS (SELECT A.* 
               EXCEPT 
               SELECT B.*) 
/*Discard NULL extended row*/
AND CA.Col1 IS NOT NULL      
ORDER BY CA.Col1, CA.Col2

Gives

what   Col1   Col2        Col3
------ ------ ----------- -----------
TableA Cat    27          86
TableB Cat    27          105
TableA Cat    128         92
TableB Lizard 83          NULL

Or a version dealing with the moved goalposts.

SELECT DISTINCT CA.*
FROM   TableA A 
       FULL OUTER JOIN TableB B 
         ON EXISTS (SELECT A.*  INTERSECT  SELECT B.*) 
CROSS APPLY (SELECT 'TableA' AS what, A.* UNION ALL
             SELECT 'TableB' AS what, B.*) AS CA     
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT A.*  INTERSECT  SELECT B.*) 
AND CA.Col1 IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY CA.Col1, CA.Col2  

---

For tables with many columns it can still be difficult to identify the specific column(s) that differ. For that you can potentially use the below.

(though just on relatively small tables as otherwise this method likely won't have adequate performance)

SELECT t1.primary_key,
       y1.c,
       y1.v,
       y2.v
FROM   t1
       JOIN t2
         ON t1.primary_key = t2.primary_key
       CROSS APPLY (SELECT t1.*
                    FOR xml path('row'), elements xsinil, type) x1(x)
       CROSS APPLY (SELECT t2.*
                    FOR xml path('row'), elements xsinil, type) x2(x)
       CROSS APPLY (SELECT n.n.value('local-name(.)', 'sysname'),
                           n.n.value('.', 'nvarchar(max)')
                    FROM   x1.x.nodes('row/*') AS n(n)) y1(c, v)
       CROSS APPLY (SELECT n.n.value('local-name(.)', 'sysname'),
                           n.n.value('.', 'nvarchar(max)')
                    FROM   x2.x.nodes('row/*') AS n(n)) y2(c, v)
WHERE  y1.c = y2.c
       AND EXISTS(SELECT y1.v
                  EXCEPT
                  SELECT y2.v) 

It is easy to accomplish with a third party tool like Data Compare, or just do it on the client. In the context of unit testing stored procedures, we just wrote some C# code.

Here is the C# code we are using, quoted from an old article:Close those Loopholes - Testing Stored Procedures

   internal static class DataSetComparer
   {
      internal static bool Compare(DataSet one, DataSet two)
      {
         if(one.Tables.Count != two.Tables.Count)
            return false;

         for(int i = 0; i < one.Tables.Count; i++)
            if(!CompareTables(one.Tables[i], two.Tables[i]))
               return false;

         return true;
        }

      private static bool CompareTables(DataTable one, DataTable two)
      {
         if(one.Rows.Count != two.Rows.Count)
            return false;

         for(int i = 0; i < one.Rows.Count; i++)
            if(!CompareRows(one.Rows[i], two.Rows[i]))
               return false;

         return true;
      }

      private static bool CompareRows(DataRow one, DataRow two)
      {
         if(one.ItemArray.Length != two.ItemArray.Length)
            return false;

         for(int i = 0; i < one.ItemArray.Length; i++)
            if(!CompareItems(one.ItemArray[i], two.ItemArray[i]))
               return false;

         return true;
      }

      private static bool CompareItems(object value1, object value2)
      {
         if(value1.GetType() != value2.GetType())
            return false;

         if(value1 is DBNull)
            return true;

         if(value1 is DateTime)
            return ((DateTime) value1).CompareTo((DateTime) value2)
                                                              == 0;

         if(value1 is byte[])
         {
            if(((byte[]) value1).Length != ((byte[]) value2).Length)
               return false;

            for(int i = 0; i < ((byte[]) value1).Length; i++)
               if(((byte[]) value1)[i] != ((byte[]) value2)[i])
                  return false;

            return true;
         }

         return value1.ToString().Equals(value2.ToString());
      }
   }