Single line diff

Question

Is there a diff tool I can run from the command line or maybe just an online webpage that will compare single lines? GitHub diffs do this but I'm don't want to publish things to GitHub just to read the diffs!

This is the sort of thing I'm wanting to diff:

a:2:{i:0;O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"foo";s:4:"next";O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:8;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"bar";s:4:"next";N;s:4:"prev";O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";N;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:15;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"zim";s:4:"next";r:8;s:4:"prev";O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";N;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:22;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"foo";s:4:"next";r:15;s:4:"prev";r:8;s:6:"ofList";O:12:"FuLinkedList":1:{s:5:"items";a:4:{i:0;r:2;i:1;r:8;i:2;r:22;i:3;r:15;}}}s:6:"ofList";r:30;}s:6:"ofList";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:5:"items";a:2:{i:0;r:2;i:1;r:8;}}}s:4:"prev";N;s:6:"ofList";r:37;}i:1;r:8;}
a:2:{i:0;O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"foo";s:4:"next";O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:8;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"bar";s:4:"next";N;s:4:"prev";O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";N;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:15;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"zim";s:4:"next";r:8;s:4:"prev";O:10:"FuTreeNode":6:{s:5:"outer";N;s:6:"inners";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:22;s:5:"items";a:0:{}}s:5:"value";s:3:"foo";s:4:"next";r:15;s:4:"prev";r:8;s:6:"ofList";O:12:"FuLinkedList":1:{s:5:"items";a:4:{i:0;r:2;i:1;r:8;i:2;r:22;i:3;r:15;}}}s:6:"ofList";r:30;}s:6:"ofList";O:20:"FuLinkedTreeNodeList":2:{s:5:"outer";r:2;s:5:"items";a:2:{i:0;r:2;i:1;r:8;}}}s:4:"prev";N;s:6:"ofList";r:37;}i:1;r:22;}

I'm on Mac OS X.

Answer 1

1. You can break the line into 'words' (by say changing all ':' chars with a single whitespace). And then use wdiff which will do a word-diff forming words at the whitespaces.

2. You could load the two files in KDiff3, it will highlight the difference (for long lines too).

Answer 2

kompare will highlight the individual characters that differ.

Wikipedia has a fairly extensive comparison of diff-style tools here.

Answer 3

I just realized that FileMerge will highlight differences insides lines, although it doesn't seem to have an option to wrap long lines, which is annoying.

Answer 4

If you know vi or vim at all, I would suggest using vimdiff. Differences will be highlighted. Starts with a vertical split, you can use "vimdiff -o a.txt b.txt" for a horizontal split instead (might be better for a single line).

Answer 5

diff_match_patch works in the browser.