Online Help

:: ExamDiff Pro :: Home

Text Comparison - Fuzzy Matching Options

Text Comparison - Fuzzy Matching Options dialog

Dialog Box Options

Fuzzy matching in changed diff blocks
Fuzzy matching enables ExamDiff Pro to intelligently align lines in changed blocks that are similar but not identical. The options in this section control when fuzzy matching is activated and how selective it is.
  • Do not perform fuzzy matching
    Selecting this option always disables fuzzy matching.

  • Always perform fuzzy matching
    Selecting this option always enables fuzzy matching. This option is not recommended if you are comparing huge files, as it can potentially greatly slow down comparison.

  • Perform fuzzy matching only if both files are smaller than
    Selecting this option enables fuzzy matching only if the files compared are both smaller than the specified size (250KB by default).

  • Matching method
    Use this option to control how the matching of similar lines is performed. The default is Characters, and it suitable for most uses. Choose Words if your files have many distinguishable words.

  • How similar must lines be to allow fuzzy matching?
    This option determines the percentage similarity that two lines must have in order to be aligned if fuzzy matching is turned on. Keep in mind that if a line has multiple potential matches within a diff block, the match will be selected that maximizes the total similarity of all the fuzzy matches in the block. Our users typically find a threshold between 40% and 80% to be effective in producing the clearest alignments for most use cases.

    Selecting 100% similarity ("No fuzzy matching") effectively disables fuzzy matching, because only exactly identical lines could be fuzzy-matched. Since changed blocks have no pairs of identical lines, no fuzzy matching will occur.

    Selecting 0% similarly ("Match any lines") will align the lines in each block maximize the total similarity of all the fuzzy matches in the block, even if this configuration results in some lines being matched with completely dissimilar lines.

Contents|Index