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Comparing two strings and highlighting differences
I'm writing a very basic content management system and I want to be able to show two different versions of some text and highlight additions, changes and deletions. Are there any controls or code samples that could help me with this? My initial Google search was fruitless.
I'm storing the content with HTML markup, although the user shouldn't see this as they won't understand it.
I'm storing the content with HTML markup, although the user shouldn't see this as they won't understand it.
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Thanks Bob.
I've had a quick play and I've just about got it to compare two simple strings. The only problem with it for my situation is that I can't find a way of using it to deal with continuous strings like the ones I'm using. My content is stored as HTML, edited by FreeTextBox. That means that everything is effectively on one line, so MeneesDiff can tell me if there is a difference, but not the character positions of those differences.
Here's an example of my content:
Before:
<p>Hello, I'm a message.</p>
After:
<p>Hello, I'm a message with an extra bit.</p>
So I'm looking for something like this as the output:
<p>Hello, I'm a message<span class="color: green"> with an extra bit.</span></p>
I've had a quick play and I've just about got it to compare two simple strings. The only problem with it for my situation is that I can't find a way of using it to deal with continuous strings like the ones I'm using. My content is stored as HTML, edited by FreeTextBox. That means that everything is effectively on one line, so MeneesDiff can tell me if there is a difference, but not the character positions of those differences.
Here's an example of my content:
Before:
<p>Hello, I'm a message.</p>
After:
<p>Hello, I'm a message with an extra bit.</p>
So I'm looking for something like this as the output:
<p>Hello, I'm a message<span class="color: green"> with an extra bit.</span></p>
Question about this case:
Before:
<p>Hello, I'm a message. This is a test</p>
After:
<p>Hello, I'm a message with an extra bit. This is a test.</p>
How would you like to handle that case? Would you like to perform this function on a sentence-by-sentence case, word-by-word case, or a character-by-character case?
Bob
Before:
<p>Hello, I'm a message. This is a test</p>
After:
<p>Hello, I'm a message with an extra bit. This is a test.</p>
How would you like to handle that case? Would you like to perform this function on a sentence-by-sentence case, word-by-word case, or a character-by-character case?
Bob
I think it'd be character-by-character, ignoring the HTML markup.
If new characters have been added then they would be coloured green by a HTML span tag.
If characters have been taken away they would be styled by a strikethrough using a HTML span tag.
If characters have been changed then ideally they'd be yellow, but that might be more difficult to implement.
Whitespace would be ignored, case wouldn't.
I'm starting to think this is going to be a lot harder than I first imagined.
If new characters have been added then they would be coloured green by a HTML span tag.
If characters have been taken away they would be styled by a strikethrough using a HTML span tag.
If characters have been changed then ideally they'd be yellow, but that might be more difficult to implement.
Whitespace would be ignored, case wouldn't.
I'm starting to think this is going to be a lot harder than I first imagined.
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Case-sensitive or case-insensitive?
Examples:
'-' is deleted char (strike-through)
'»' is new char (green)
'•' is changed char (yellow)
Before: After: Highlight:
=============== ============== ======
This is a test Test ----------•est
Spread Read -•ead
Tree Trees Tree»
Frees Freed Free•
Are these valid assumptions?
Bob
Examples:
'-' is deleted char (strike-through)
'»' is new char (green)
'•' is changed char (yellow)
Before: After: Highlight:
=============== ============== ======
This is a test Test ----------•est
Spread Read -•ead
Tree Trees Tree»
Frees Freed Free•
Are these valid assumptions?
Bob
Those are valid assumptions, although it would be case-sensitive.
The reason for making it case sensitive is so that when somebody comes to review the content, they can see what has changed at a quick glance, i.e. missing capital letter on a place name.
The reason for making it case sensitive is so that when somebody comes to review the content, they can see what has changed at a quick glance, i.e. missing capital letter on a place name.
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C# is an object-oriented programming language created in conjunction with Microsoft’s .NET framework. Compilation is usually done into the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL), which is then JIT-compiled to native code (and cached) during execution in the Common Language Runtime (CLR).