Is there any built-in, add-in solution for visual studio to compare two files and display result with differences? I could't find one...
+1
A:
Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition has a built in version (based on WinDiff?) but you can incorporate third party tools e.g.
Beyond Compare which I regularly use.
See here for how-to.
nzpcmad
2008-12-09 00:16:12
A:
Not that I know of, but Beyond Compare is probably worth a look anyway.
Roddy
2008-12-09 00:18:39
+1
A:
That functionality appears to be related to Source Control. So it is really as source control issue.
If you are not using Source Control - You should be - Try The Vault from www.sourcegear.com for a good (and free for one user) commercial source control system. There are others and they should come with a comparision tool (The Vault has one and its installed into VS when you install the vault client and connect to a source controlled project).
Brody
2008-12-09 01:12:23
A:
Depending on your use case I'd recommend VisualSVN. You'll get the source control feature of SVN built into the VS IDE plus the ability to compare any source code file with any checked in version file from SVN.
It installs all the prerequites for you SVN (Subversion), TortoiseSVN, Diff, AND VisualSVN (The Visual Studio Integration).
It also has a nice quick windows installer for the SVN server which worries about apache etc. so you don't have to.
Essential for the non linux geek, it it not free but at $49 it is a bargain,
Christopher Edwards
2008-12-09 01:49:42
A:
SlickEdit Tools Versioning Toolbox has the same diff tool built in as the SlickEdit programmer's editor. The Versioning Toolbox is not free but isn't that expensive either. The diff tool is very nice.
Darren Stokes
2009-02-03 00:07:47
+8
A:
I use WinMerge. Not as good as Beyond Compare but it's free and open source.
Also check out Visual Studio Comparison Tools, it's a Visual Studio add-in that connects it to WinMerge.
djeidot
2009-02-03 10:04:03
+5
A:
Here is an excellent post that describes integration of many 3rd party diff and merge tools into Visual Studio - including araxis, beyond compare, WinMerge and many others. The post is badly needed, since the command-line parameters that VS can supply aren't fully documented.
Personally, I switched from the built-in tool to Araxis, and am generally happy with it. I am also curious about bazaar, which supposedly (according to the colorful author of its diff-component), "solves the diff problem"... Anyone has any experience with that?
Ofek Shilon
2009-05-22 18:42:02
A:
Hello. As for me, CodeCompare is a useful solution for your task. You can compare, merge and edit data within one environment - in the Visual Studio.
JackD
2010-06-09 06:34:52
CodeCompare seems to be awesome!! However, I recently found it, installed it and threw it away like half an hour later. The reason: It is currently totally unstable in VS 2010. Running multiple instances of VS 2010 results in comparison windows opening in the wrong instance (wtf?) and after running a comparison the window opens and then leads to VS 2010 crashing immediately. These phenomenons occur on my system... doesn't necessarily mean that they happen on others' systems too. :) I will try it out in a couple of weeks/months when 2.0 is RTM again.
Mephisztoe
2010-08-12 09:20:36
I've tried last version of CodeCompare. It is very well as for me. Interaction with VS 2010 was fixed.
JackD
2010-10-08 13:37:48
A:
You can try CompareEnter. With it, you can compare the active file in Visual Studio or the containing folder by using external comparison software.