Comparison rules

Text compare · Comparison rules

Rules decide which changes are important; display filters decide which rows you see. Whitespace positions, case, regular expressions and line endings can be controlled independently. Ignoring a difference preserves it as a minor change rather than deleting the original data.

To correct automatic line matching, right-click a source line, choose “Align with…”, then choose its matching line on the other side. Anchors constrain matching without changing text. Crossing anchors are rejected; remove the conflicting anchor before choosing a new correspondence.

Name	Default
Ignore whitespace	Disabled
Ignore case	Disabled
Ignore leading whitespace	Disabled
Ignore embedded whitespace	Disabled
Ignore trailing whitespace	Disabled
Compare line endings	Disabled
Unpaired lines are important	Enabled
Ignore patterns (one regex per line)	—
Context lines	3

Reading results

No important differences means agreement within the selected mode and rules. It does not establish identical file bytes, identical appearance or identical metadata. Check the relevant modes separately.

Important changes: Red marks changes considered important by the active rules. Text insertions and deletions also use the important-change color.
Minor changes: Blue retains changes treated as minor, such as ignored whitespace or differences within a tolerance. It does not mean the original data is identical.
Only on one side: Purple identifies content present on only one side where the comparison uses that category, such as an unmatched file or audio segment.
Not checked: Unchecked means the current mode or source cannot establish equality. Missing formula caches and unsupported content must not be read as equal.

Comparison limits

Array reordering remains a change. Duplicate object keys are rejected.

Read-only: no file synchronization, deletion or remote folders. Unsupported content remains unchecked.