diff/merge software comparison
Relative links:
| Feature | Line wrap | Does not show several lines as one modification block | Hotkeys for merging left/right, jump to next/previous block | Jump to next difference after copying the change | Efficient character comparison (no floating character problem) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Araxis Merge |  (View → Options → Text Comparisons → Display → Wrap long lines + Break lines at word boundaries) | (View → Options → Text Comparisons → Display → Break changes into individual lines) | (View → Options → Text Comparisons → Editing → Use Ctrl and cursor keys to perform merging operations) |  | |
| oXygen XML Diff | (Options → Preferences → Diff → File Comparison → Appearance → Line wrap) | | (assign in Options → Menu Short Keys) | – | – |
| Aitova DiffDog | (Text View → Word Wrap) | | (Alt+Down / Alt+Left) | | / |
| Beyond Compare | | | (Ctrl+N / Ctrl+R) | |  |
| Compare++ | (View → Word Wrap) | | (Ctrl+N / Ctrl+R) | | |
| WinMerge | (View → Wrap lines) | | (Alt+Down / Alt+Right) | | |
| Eclipse | | | | | |
Araxis Merge:
View → Options → Text Comparisons → Ignore all differences in whitespace
View → Options → Text Comparisons → Display → Show whitespace characters- View → Options → Text Comparisons → Editing → Expand tabs to 4 spaces
- View → Options → Text Comparisons → Editing → Tab inserts tab characters
- Shows the place in destination where the insertion should take place with a vertical pipe.
oXygen XML Diff:
- Switch to “Character” mode on the toolbar
- Options → Preferences → Diff → File Comparison → Ignore whitespace
- Options → Preferences → Editor → Show TAB marks + Show SPACE marks
- Allows to copy the character spans.
- Shows the place in destination where the insertion should take place with a vertical pipe but only for selected span in the source.
Aitova DiffDog:
Alt-Enterselects the current block- On the test it failed to make a clean comparison (depth analysis is not enough)
- Tools → Comparison Options → Whitespace: Compare as is
- Tools → Comparison Options → Ignore blank lines
Compare++:
- Is slow.
Eclipse:
- Can't do character comparison.
WinMerge:
- Can highlight non-matching characters per line, but no navigation (e.g. “Next difference in line”).
- Merging is not implemented
- Shows only XML structure comparison, not possible to switch to character comparison
- Comparison is a part of DB modelling / administration tool.
- Merging is not possible
- No line wrap
Libraries