+20
Completed

Copy and paste columns

Oggy Shopov 9 years ago updated by Alan Nitikman 6 years ago 18
It would be very convenient if one or more columns can be selected from one table and then pasted into another table along wit all of their settings. Many companies have audit trail policies for their data, which means all of their entities have a number of columns for CreatedBy, CreatedOn, CreatedIpAddress,  ModifiedBy, ModifiedOn, ModifiedIpAddress, ActiveRecord, etc. As you can see that's a lot of columns with identical settings, but it is time consuming to create them on each table.
Thank you.

Answer

PINNED
Completed

Column copy and paste is already done. We've forgot resolve the issue here. 


To copy columns please do following steps:

- Select column by clicking dotted area near column name (left side, see attached screenshot). You can select more than one column using CTRL key.

- Press CTRL + C to copy columns to clipboard.

- Press CTRL + V to paste columns.

- Columns from clipboard should appear at the end of the column list.


You can also cut selected columns by pressing CTRL + X.



Under review
It seems useful and interesting. We have to think how to this from UX perspective.

I keep this issue opened to allow other users to comment.
I want to copy columns too. Right now, I have to copy and edit a table to save these settings.
Absolutely the most noticeable missing feature, to me. A big +1

Would be nice to be able to copy between models in same manner (including entire table, selection of tables, or an area). Currently only way I see of doing this would be xml export, modify, import.

Would be nice to be able to copy between models in same manner (including entire table, selection of tables, or an area).

Copy&paste of selected diagram objects is possible. You can just select some tables/views/references/areas, copy them, switch to a different model and paste right there. It should work.


In case of copy&paste of columns, we don't support it yet. Looking at the number of upvotes, I'm pretty sure we will do this.

ok, I will try that out.

Hi! I recommend you reading our 24 tips for Vertabelo users. There's a lot of interesting tricks there, including copying and pasting tables between two models:

http://www.vertabelo.com/blog/documentation/database-modeling-tip-3-how-to-copy-tables-between-models

This is copying/pasting columns, not tables. This is available in the top 3 data modeling products -- visual column select (one or many), copy, and paste.  In PowerDesigner, they allow CUT and paste, only, so you copy/paste a table, move the columns with click&drag to the target table.

Alternatively, for Audit columns, ER-Studio has a macro feature that allows one to define a standard set of audit columns and add them to all tables as part of DDL generation, so that the Logical Data Model is not "polluted" with a stack of physical-only attributes that make for a far less-business-friendly model display.

+1

+1! Working with large database needs to adopt and follow some standards, includedcolumn names, size, types, ... This would-be feature can really leverage the -already rather good- Vertabelo quality and usability

For the record, these are the sorts of additional features that make a nice quick-and-easy modeling tool into an enterprise class tool. (That and a repository with version control, but that's a huge ask). 

Any decision to whether add this feature or not, it's been 3 years.

I have found and used the column copy. I created a table with all my audit columns, I select the columns I want, hit control-C, position the cursor over the target table, and hit control-V. It works, yes.  HOWEVER... I have a carefully constructed relational model, with the tables sized to handle many relationships to core tables. As soon as I paste even ONE column to that table, the table resizes down to the minimum, throwing all my relationship lines into a tangled mess.  And, in Vertabelo, once a relationship line has been broken, you have to move that break and manage it and the lines no longer adjust in a reasonable manner.  I've figured out workarounds, but I would prefer you NOT resize the target table, just because a column or two was added.  expand it to accomodate the additional column(s), fine, but don't minimize it; that's really a pain in the neck.

How do you copy only columns?

PINNED
Completed

Column copy and paste is already done. We've forgot resolve the issue here. 


To copy columns please do following steps:

- Select column by clicking dotted area near column name (left side, see attached screenshot). You can select more than one column using CTRL key.

- Press CTRL + C to copy columns to clipboard.

- Press CTRL + V to paste columns.

- Columns from clipboard should appear at the end of the column list.


You can also cut selected columns by pressing CTRL + X.



There are significant bugs in the copy/paste:  

#1, as I said before, whenever you paste to a table, all your formatting of that table, resizing in particular, is reverted to default, which messes up relationship lines and makes spaghetti out of it. Some of those here may not care so much about pretty models, but I do and so should Vertabelo, since pretty models help sell product. And they make it a lot clearer and easier for the business client to understand.


#2, and probably more important, when you copy columns, that copy gets stuck in cache and not cleared. I've copied and pasted columns, then tried to copy a description, and all I get back are the columns, over and over, no matter what I do. I paste the definition I tried to copy or cut, hit control-V to paste, and the table where I pasted the columns gets another set, and another, and another... into infinity. I have to close the browser and open up the model again to clear cache. Please fix this!