Algorithm Question

[viperload01]

Guys,

Can you offer any help or point me in the right direction for writing an algorithm that compares 2 text files and finds any differences?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jmeckley]

The 2 determining factors are size and speed.

This really depends on the size of the file. for smaller files, just load the entire file to memory and compare strings. for medium size files you may want to use an enumeration and compare line by line and fail at the first difference. if the text files are large then you may want to use a different approach altogether. stream the file and compare bytes.

another approach, use PERL to compare the files. From what I understand about PERL it excels at regex and file manipulation. It looks like there are plenty of examples as well.

Jason Meckley
Programmer

faq855-7190
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[BenBroadway1501]

are you looking for a previously developed function to compute the differences? or are you truly trying to write the actual code of an algorithm?

if you want to write the code for the algorithm, you might want to read about the classic computer science concept of the Longest Common Subsequence problem...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_common_subsequence_problem

Good luck!

-Ben