How to Compare Text Files in Java

We quickly guide you through the detailed process to compare text files in Java and develop a working sample code by following these instructions to compare two large text files in Java. You can use the steps and example on any platform such as MS Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Below you can find step-by-step instructions along with a sample code.

Steps to Compare Text Files in Java

  1. Install GroupDocs.Comparison for Java from the Maven repository in the Java application
  2. Import essential classes for comparing text files using Java
  3. Create an instance of the Comparer class and pass the source text file to its constructor
  4. Call the add method of the Comparer class and specify the target file path for developing compare text files Java capability
  5. Finally, call the compare method and pass the resultant file path for text files comparison

In the above section, we have explained the steps to develop the compare two text files Java functionality. You can start loading the source text file by initializing the Comparer class after installing the required library and importing the necessary classes. Then, load the target text file by calling the add method and finally use compare method for comparing the two text files.

Code to Compare Text Files in Java

import com.groupdocs.comparison.Comparer;
import com.groupdocs.comparison.result.ChangeInfo;
import com.groupdocs.comparison.license.License;
import java.nio.file.Path;
public class CompareTextFilesInJava {
public static void main(String[] args) { // Main function to compare Text files in Java
// Remove the watermark in output Text document by adding license
License lic = new License();
lic.setLicense("GroupDocs.Comparison.lic");
try (Comparer comparer = new Comparer("source.txt")) {
comparer.add("target.txt");
final Path resultPath = comparer.compare("result.txt");
ChangeInfo[] changes = comparer.getChanges();
for (ChangeInfo change: changes) {
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Source text: " + change.getSourceText());
System.out.println("Target text: " + change.getTargetText());
}
}
System.out.println("Done");
}
}

We have developed the Java code to compare two text files word by word to show you the working of this feature. We have completed the document comparison by consuming a few API calls and with a few lines of code. Moreover, you can compare a number of other document formats including PDF, DOC, JPG, EML, MSG, DWG, MOBI, CSV, and many more by consuming this API.

We have covered the detailed steps for doing document comparison and used text comparison API for implementing Java compare two text files capability. Recently, we had published an article on comparing PDF files in Java, visit how to Compare PDF Files using Java guide for more information.

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