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Text Comparison - General Options

Text Comparison Options dialog

Dialog Box Options

Ignore
When parts of a text file are ignored, they are not compared. These options in this section, as well as the Ignore white space in lines, Ignore lines, and Ignore parts of each line sections, can be quickly disabled/enabled with the Use Ignores command.
  • Case
    Consider upper- and lower-case to be the same.

  • Linebreak styles
    Ignore linebreak styles: CRLF (DOS/Windows) vs. LF (Unix) vs. CR (Mac).

  • Comments
    Ignore comments, as defined by the document type in use. Alternatively, you can use the Ignore Comments toolbar button Ignore Comments toolbar button.
Ignore white space in lines
  • All
    Ignore all white space in lines.

  • Leading
    Ignore leading white space in lines.

  • Trailing
    Ignore trailing white space in lines.

  • Changes in amount
    Ignore changes in the amount of white space in lines.

Ignore lines
  • All blank lines
    Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.

  • Blank lines at the end of a file
    Ignore changes whose lines are all blank if they are at the end of a file.

  • Lines matching regular expression
    Ignore changes whose lines all match a specified regular expression.

  • Row ranges
    Ignore all lines whose line number falls within specified ranges. Use a comma-separated list of individual ranges, each of which is either a single number or a pair of hyphen-separated numbers. You can also prefix a range with "1:" or "2:" to apply it only to the first or to the second file (by default ranges apply to both files). Examples:
    • 2-7
    • 1:1-6,2:12,20-[6]
    • [m]-n is not a valid string, for any integers m and n.
Ignore parts of each line
  • Parts matching regular expression
    Ignore, in each line, parts matching a specified regular expression. For instance, specifying //.* as a regular expression will make ExamDiff Pro ignore all single-line C++-style comments.

  • Column ranges
    Ignore, in each line, all text in specified ranges of columns. Use a comma-separated list of individual ranges, each of which is either a single number or a pair of hyphen-separated numbers. You can also prefix a range with "1:" or "2:" to apply it only to the first or to the second file (by default ranges apply to both files). See examples above under the description for Row ranges.

    Note that columns can be defined as single characters, in which case you will be ignoring ranges of characters in each line, or as line parts delimited by any of specified characters (by default, comma or tab). The latter allows you to ignore columns in comma- or tab- (or any other character of your choice) delimited files.
Detail level for difference identification
View differences down to word or character level. Thus, if one letter is changed in a file, then you can choose whether only the line of the change is identified, the line and the word where the change occurred, or the line and the character where the change occurred. Alternatively, you can use the Detail Level drop-down toolbar button Detail Level toolbar button.

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