Get output similar to wdiff (*nix utility)

[riyadparvez]

I'm trying to get word by word diff similar to wdiff utility in *nix. Is there any way to achieve output similar to wdiff?

For reference, this is the output format of wdiff:

➜  echo "ab xy" > /tmp/a.txt
➜  echo "bc xy" > /tmp/b.txt
➜  wdiff /tmp/a.txt /tmp/b.txt          
[-ab-]{+bc+} xy

[mmanela]

You would need to build it. I think the idea of diff formatters would be really nice to add to this library. I think my existing diff model should allow you to build that.

Would you be interested?

[riyadparvez]

Sure, I'm interested in contributing back. I'm actually looking for API for word to word diff similar to following inline diff builder:

            var d = new Differ();
            var inlineBuilder = new InlineDiffBuilder(d);
            var result = inlineBuilder.BuildDiffModel(OldText, NewText);
            foreach (var line in result.Lines)
            {
                if (line.Type == ChangeType.Inserted)
                    Console.Write("+ ");
                else if (line.Type == ChangeType.Deleted)
                    Console.Write("- ");
                else
                    Console.Write("  ");

                Console.WriteLine(line.Text);
            }

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any similar API for word to word diff. I got the following code working so far.

			var prev = "a";
			var current = "abc";

			var differ = new DiffPlex.Differ();
			var result = differ.CreateWordDiffs(prev, current, false, new char[] { ' ', '\n'});
			var diffCount = result.DiffBlocks.Count;
			Console.WriteLine("Diff Block Count: {0}", diffCount);

			foreach (var block in result.DiffBlocks)
			{
				Console.WriteLine(block.InsertStartB);
				Console.WriteLine(block.InsertCountB);
				Console.WriteLine(block.DeleteStartA);
				Console.WriteLine(block.DeleteCountA);
			}

However, the output is not very intuitive and hard to understand. Is it possible to get output like the inline diff builder?

[mmanela]

The Differ is the core api. It tells you exactly which blocks are deleted/inserted. If you look at the code for Inline builder it shows how to interpret those blocks