Text Compare
Compare two text blocks side-by-side and instantly see differences. Perfect for code reviews, content comparison, and document versioning.
Table of Contents
What is Text Comparison?
Text comparison, also known as diff checking, is the process of analyzing two text blocks to identify differences between them. This tool highlights additions, deletions, and unchanged content, making it easy to spot changes at a glance.
Whether you're comparing code versions, reviewing document edits, or checking content changes, text comparison helps you quickly identify what has been modified, added, or removed between two versions of text.
Use Cases
Text comparison is essential in many scenarios:
- Code Reviews: Compare code changes before merging pull requests or reviewing commits
- Content Editing: Track changes between document versions and review edits
- Document Versioning: Compare different versions of contracts, policies, or legal documents
- Translation Review: Compare original and translated text to ensure accuracy
- Configuration Management: Compare configuration files to identify changes
- Data Validation: Verify data integrity by comparing datasets or outputs
- Plagiarism Detection: Identify similarities and differences between texts
- Quality Assurance: Compare expected vs actual outputs in testing scenarios
Features
Line-by-Line Comparison
Compare text line by line with line numbers for easy reference. Perfect for code reviews and structured documents where line-level changes matter.
Word-by-Word Comparison
Get granular word-level differences for precise comparison. Ideal for content editing and identifying subtle text changes.
Visual Highlighting
Added content is highlighted in green, removed content in red with strikethrough, and unchanged content remains normal. This color-coding makes differences immediately obvious.
Statistics Dashboard
View comprehensive statistics including the number of added, removed, and unchanged lines or words. Get a quick overview of how extensive the changes are.
Real-Time Comparison
See differences update instantly as you type or paste text. No need to click a button—the comparison happens automatically.
Client-Side Processing
All comparison happens entirely in your browser. Your text is never sent to any server, ensuring complete privacy and security for sensitive content.
Best Practices
Choose the Right Mode
Use line-by-line comparison for code, structured documents, or when line numbers are important. Use word-by-word comparison for prose, content editing, or when you need to see precise word-level changes.
Review Statistics First
Check the statistics dashboard to get a quick overview of changes before diving into the detailed diff. This helps you understand the scope of changes at a glance.
Use for Code Reviews
When reviewing code changes, use line-by-line mode with line numbers enabled. This makes it easy to reference specific lines when discussing changes with your team.
Handle Large Texts
For very large documents, consider comparing sections at a time for better performance and easier review. The tool handles large texts well, but breaking them into sections can improve readability.
Verify Important Changes
Always carefully review highlighted changes, especially in critical documents like contracts, legal text, or production code. The tool helps identify changes, but human review is essential.
Frequently Asked Questions
Line-by-line comparison compares entire lines at once, showing which lines were added, removed, or changed. Word-by-word comparison breaks down the text into individual words, showing precise word-level changes. Use line-by-line for code and structured text, and word-by-word for prose and content editing.
No. All comparison happens entirely in your browser. Your text is never sent to our servers, stored in a database, or saved anywhere. When you refresh or close the page, your text is cleared.
Yes, the tool can handle large documents, but for best performance and readability, we recommend comparing documents under 100,000 characters at a time. For extremely large documents, consider comparing sections separately.
The tool uses a straightforward comparison algorithm that accurately identifies added, removed, and unchanged content. For complex scenarios with many similar lines or words, the algorithm provides a reliable comparison suitable for most use cases.
You can copy the original or compared text using the copy buttons. The diff output is displayed with color coding, but you can manually select and copy the text if needed. Future versions may include export functionality.
Yes, the tool works with any language and character set, including Unicode characters, emojis, and special symbols. The comparison algorithm handles all text content universally.
Absolutely! The line-by-line comparison mode with line numbers is perfect for code reviews. It helps you quickly identify changes, additions, and deletions in code before merging or approving changes.
Green background indicates added content (new text in the second version), red background with strikethrough indicates removed content (text that was in the first version but not in the second), and normal text indicates unchanged content that appears in both versions.