Thread: Multiple file comparison, and reporting in detail

Right so the problem is as follows if anybody could give me a few pointers:

I've what seems like a simple task to do. I'm coding in VBA and want to run a macro such that you identify two folders (each contain the same number of files, with the same name).
I then want to compare these files(.txt, .xls, .exp, .tab - Issues with file types?) whether that be by parsing the files or by loading them into excel in a temporary sheet, pair by pair and doing some sort of vlookup.

The point of this is to find any discrepancies and highlight them in a seperate sheet for further analysis. (can the FC function in DOS help at all?)

If anyone could point me in the direction of a VBA method or a starting point I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

to compare 2 textfiles in 2 different folders:

sub snb()
  open "E:\OF\example1.txt" for input as 1
    c01=Input(LOF(1),1)
  close

  open "E:\OF2\example1.txt" for input as 1
    c02=Input(LOF(1),1)
  close

  msgbox iif(strcomp(c01,c02)=0,"","Not ") & "equal"
End Sub

I did what you asked in your first post.

Please be more specific, post some example files, and what you want the comparison result to look like.

Could the files themselves be altered when a mis match is found

If you want the files in both folders to be exactly the same, you don't need to compare, but only to copy.....

sub snb()
  c00="E:\OF2\"   '  the folder to compare with

  for each fl in createobject("scripting.filesystemobject").getfolder("E:\OF").files
    if dir(c00 & fl.name)="" then
      c03= c03 & vbcr & fl.name & "|missing"
    else
      open fl for input as 1
        c01=Input(LOF(1),1)
      close

      open c00 & fl.name for input as 1
        c02=Input(LOF(1),1)
      close
      
      if strcomp(c01,c02)=0 then
        c03=c03 & vbcr & fl.name & "|match"
      else
        c04=""
        sn=split(c01,vbcrlf)
        sq=split(c02,vbcrlf)
        for j=1 to ubound(sn)
          if strcomp(sn(j),sq(j))<>0 then c04=c04 & vbtab "line " & j &": " & sn(j) & " / " & sq(j)
        next 
        c03=c03 & vbcr & fl.name & "|mismatch|"  & c04
      end if
    end if
  next

  st=split(mid(c03,2),vbcr)
  sheets(1).cells(1).resize(ubound(st)+1)=application.transpose(st)
  sheets(1).columns(1).texttocolumns ,,,,False,False,False,False,True,"|"
End Sub

There's no need to declare any variable.I let the VBA-compiler determine what vartype to use.
sn, sq and st are variant arrays.The split method produces arrays.

If you encounter a problem please be as specific as possible: what (kind of) file, which folder, the file content, etc. 'a problem with' doesn't provide an information overload.

Thanks snb. I'm been stepping through it so I follow your logic. I'll need to clean up the output so if a lot of errors are there it won't generate one long line.

I was hoping for something along the lines of the output in the attached. Would this just be a case of inserting the correct variable into the desired cell? I'd like to break on a new line with each set of files.

Thanks in advance, this has really helped me so far

I'd like to break on a new line with each set of files

That's what my macro does.

What is the use of repeating the identical filenames in column A & column B ?

In that case you'll have to adapt the suggestion I made to your 'needs'.