Thread: Java API to compare two files

Is there any Java API available to compare two files?
I want to compare the following format of files
-> Microsoft Office Word
-> Microsoft Office Excel
-> Microsoft Office PowerPoint

Is there any Java API available to compare two files?

Not that I know of in the Java SE. Perhaps there is a third party package. Have you looked at Apache POI?

I want to get the difference in the content between two files. The difference should be highligted in some color and it should be shown to the user.

Well, thanks God, i found some place, relevant to my poblem. Actually my problem is almost similar. What i want is:

"Suppose there are two huge text files (say 100000 character each), is there any API or efficient algorithm that could compare for changes/differences between two files?"


I will be very thankful to you, please let me know as soon as you can.


Regards...

What does Google return for file compare or file differences?
I've written some programs over the years to to that. Somebody must have one that they are proud of and want to share.

I want to get the difference in the content between two files. The difference should be highligted in some color

What would you expect as output from such an API if you compared two files which were made from the same content, but one saved with Microsoft Word 95 and the other with Microsoft Word 6.0?

Suppose there are two huge text files (say 100000 character each),

Do you want to see the differences between the files (like Meld : Home Page) or just get an indication of how different they are?

Well, i am asking for an API that could work like (Getting two files, compaing for the differences among text and output is like the differences of text between two files, as if you have used repository software, when you do Show differences, it shows you difference between two versions and tell highlight where difference lies). That's what i am asking. Please let me know.

Originally Posted by Sean4u

What would you expect as output from such an API if you compared two files which were made from the same content, but one saved with Microsoft Word 95 and the other with Microsoft Word 6.0?


Do you want to see the differences between the files (like Meld : Home Page) or just get an indication of how different they are?

Yeah like Meld one.... But i want to what Java API they used if it's Java based

If you want to compare the text from two files saved in a (potentially different version of a) proprietary format, then you need something that understands the proprietary format - you can exclude all text-based comparison software. There's a thread at stackoverflow which mentions one or two of what I expect would be a very few options:

http://www.google.com/search?q=java%...20word%20files
Is there any Java API available to compare two microsoft word documents? - Stack Overflow

It's a much more complicated task than text comparison, you might have to do a lot of work yourself to get something that works the way you want it for all your use cases.

Thanks Sean4u for sharing such informative links. Did great help....

I am not sure where to ask about ocx4j.jar....
Can i ask here or some other place???
This is much related to this question that's why i posted here.

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