Diff Utills library is an OpenSource library for performing the comparison operations between texts: computing diffs, applying patches, generating unified diffs or parsing them, generating diff output for easy future displaying (like side-by-side view) and so on.
Main reason to build this library was the lack of easy-to-use libraries with all the usual stuff you need while working with diff files. Originally it was inspired by JRCS library and it’s nice design of diff module.
Main Features
- computing the difference between two texts
- capable to hand more than plain ascci. Arrays or Lists of any type that implements hashCode() and equals() correctly can be subject to differencing using this library
- patch and unpatch the text with the given patch
- parsing the unified diff format
- producing human-readable differences
Coming eventually
- support for inline diffs in output
- helpers for showing side-by-side, line-by-line diffs or text with inter-line and intra-line change highlights
- customization of diff algorithm for better experience while computing diffs between strings (ignoring blank lines or spaces, etc)
- generating the output in unified diff format. Handing other formats (CVS)
Algoritms
This library implements Myer’s diff algorithm. But it can easily replaced by any other which is better for handing your texts. I have plan to add implementation of some in future.