generic-diff
v1.0.1
Published
Diff any array-like object, including strings
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generic-diff
Diff arrays or array-like objects, such as strings. Based on "An O(ND) Difference Algorithm and its Variations" (Myers, 1986).
diff( a, b [, eql] )
Diffs the array-like objects a
and b
, returning a summary of edits required to turn a
into b
. Defaults to using strict equality (===
) to compare items in a
and b
. A comparison function, eql
, can optionally be used for more nuanced comparisons; the signature of this function is (item from a, item from b) => Boolean
.
The “summary of changes” is an array of objects with three properties: items
, an array of one or more items from a
or b
, and boolean properties added
and removed
, indicating whether the item(s) should be added or removed from a
, respectively. For example, if we’re diffing the strings abc
and abd
, the summary of changes would look like:
[{
items: ['a', 'b'],
added: false,
removed: false
}, {
items: ['c'],
added: false,
removed: true
}, {
items: ['d'],
added: true,
removed: false
}]
Example
Diff two strings, creating an HTML representation of their differences:
var diff = require('generic-diff')
var changes = diff('falafel', 'fallacy')
changes = changes.map(function (edit) {
if (edit.added) {
return '<ins>' + edit.items.join('') + '</ins>'
} else if (edit.removed) {
return '<del>' + edit.items.join('') + '</del>'
} else {
return edit.items.join('')
}
}).join('')
console.log(changes)
// 'fal<del>afe</del>l<ins>acy</ins>'
For a slightly more involved example, this gist demonstrates how to diff two files and produce an output similar to the UNIX diff
command.
LICENSE
MIT