Compare two files in Visual Studio

Question

I saw new comparsion tool in VS 2012 for comparing two files or two versions of file  I like it  But when I tried to find it I can t because I don t use TFS  Is there a way how I can just compare two files with the built-in feature in VS  but without TFS

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UPDATED  For VS 2019 File Differ Plugin Allow to compare files in distinct proyects     You can install it from here     OLD   For VS 2017 Install  https   marketplace visualstudio com items itemName vs-publisher-457497 FileComparer2017  The problem is that you can t compare files in diferent proyects  but you can copy the files in the same project to compare

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There is also a Visual Studio extension called CompareFiles  which does nothing else but adding the  Compare Files  entry to the solution explorer context menu  It invokes the built-in Visual Studio diff tool   Just in case that someone  like me  doesn t want to install an all-in-one extension like VSCommands

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In Visual Studio Code you can    Go to the Explorer Right click the first file you want to compare Select Select for compare Right click on the second file you want to compare Select Compare with   NAME OF THE PREVIOUSLY SELECTED FILE

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I have always been a fan of WinMerge which is an open source project   You can plug it into Visual Studio fairly easily    http   blog paulbouwer com 2010 01 31 replace-diffmerge-tool-in-visual-studio-team-system-with-winmerge   will show you how to do this

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Visual Studio code is great for this - open a folder  right click both files and compare

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In Visual Studio the Diff can be called using Command Window and then Tools DiffFiles command   Open Command Window by hotkeys Ctrl   W  A or by menu View - gt  Other Windows - gt  Command Window Enter command Tools DiffFiles  FirstFile cs   SecondFile cs

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VS2019- gt View- gt Other Windows- gt Command Window  CTRL ALT A  Tools DiffFiles File1 File2

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To compare any two files and merge it to one file Here are the following steps you can follow if you have visual studio Any version  installed   Step 1  Open Visual studio command prompt   If you do not find visual studio command prompt then choose visual studio tools   Start -  Visual studio command prompt       Step 2  Enter the command vsdiffmerge exe   Ignore the switch  m if you need just comparison   Syntax 1  vsdiffmerge  lt file1 gt   lt file2 gt   lt file1 gt   lt outputfile gt   t  m  Syntax 2  vsdiffmerge  lt basefilename gt   lt CompareFilename gt   lt basefilename gt   lt OutputFilename gt   t  m  Example 1  vsdiffmerge test1 js test2 js test1 js output js  t  m  Example 2   vsdiffmerge exe  C  Users livingston Downloads wa wa Files pre Test js   C  Users livingston Downloads wa wa Files Prod Test js   C  Users livingston Downloads wa wa Files pre Test js   C  Users livingston Downloads wa wa Files output samp js   t  m     Step 3  Merge the files    Please note that if file name does not exists in the location  it will not open the comparer   Also you can beautify the file before you do the comparison   In visual studio Ctrl   K   D   There are lot of beautifier sites available online

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If you have VS installed  you could also call    VS110COMNTOOLS    IDE vsdiffmerge exe   File1   File2    or for VS 2013    VS120COMNTOOLS    IDE vsdiffmerge exe   File1   File2    Source  http   roadtoalm com 2013 10 22 use-visual-studio-as-your-diff-and-merging-tool-for-local-files

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You can try VSCommands extension from Visual Studio Gallery  Latest release allows you to select two file and compare them

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If you are working with TFS connected then right click on file which you need to compare  through source control explorer  and it presents you a window like this -   Now change path of source file in  Souce Path   and you get comparision through VS comparision tool   Similarly you can compare folder also which compares all files of a folder at once

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File Comparer VS Extension by Akhil Mittal   Excellent lightweight tool that gets the job done

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In Visual Studio 2012  2013  2015  you can also do it with Web Essentials  just right click the files and from context menu   Web Essential    Diff selected files   Edit  It s now available as a separate extension

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I believe this to be one of the better extension for Visual Studio 2012  it s called Code Compare and can be found here

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Inspired by the accepted answer above  I found a very comfortable way how you can instantly compare two files with Visual Studio by using drag and drop or via the  quot Send To quot  context menu  It only requires a little preparation which you need to do once and then it is useful like a Swiss army knife  Visual Studio already has everything you need  there are only some configuration steps required to make this working  File compare using drag  amp  drop Preparation   Create a new batch file using your favorite text editor  Type the following    echo off setlocal set vspath C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise Common7 IDE start  quot Compare files quot   B  MIN  quot  vspath  devenv exe quot   diff  2  1 First   2  Second   1   You might notice that I have reversed the  1 and  2 parameters in the batch  This is because I noticed that the file explorer passes the 2nd file as first parameter  then the 1st file as second parameter   Save this code as VS FileCompare cmd to use it  modify vspath if required to match the location of devenv exe  depending on the Visual Studio version you re currently using  see footnote      Either create a shortcut named  quot File Compare quot  for VS FileCompare cmd and place it on the desktop  as used in the animation below   so it is always available to drag  amp  drop files onto it or directly place the batch file on the desktop  That s all    Usage   Open the Windows explorer via Win   E  Select two files to compare in the explorer  Drag and drop them as shown in the animation below    After a few seconds  depending on the launch time of Visual Studio   the results will be shown in Visual Studio     Note  It does not harm if Visual Studio is already open  In this case it will just open up a new window within the running instance of Visual Studio  So you can compare multiple file pairs  but please ensure you have selected only 2 files at a time   Alternative way  SendTo context menu Here s an alternative how you can use the batch file VS FileCompare cmd mentioned in the section above  It allows to use the context menu s Send To folder to compare the files  Preparation   Create a shortcut  quot Compare2Files VS quot  for the batch file VS FileCompare cmd and copy it into the SendTo folder  Open the Windows explorer via Win   E Open the SendTo folder by entering  shell sendto into the file explorer s address bar  as described here   Then  put the prepared shortcut into this folder   Usage   Open the Windows explorer via Win   E  Select two files to compare in the explorer  Assuming the shortcut for the batch file VS FileCompare cmd is named  quot Compare2Files VS quot   you can select the two files  right-click and select Send To -- gt  Compare2Files VS to invoke the compare as shown below    After a few seconds  depending on the launch time of Visual Studio   the results will be shown in Visual Studio     HINT  If you like the SendTo folder approach  there is more you can do - for example you can open a command shell directly via SendTo and it starts with the right path  the path where the selected file resides   Look here fo find out how to do that  You can even combine it with the script to gain elevated rights  with only a little extra effort   MSDN References    Usage of diff window  Visual Studio s Diff parameter       Footnote  Because vsPath  the path to DEVENV exe  differs depending on your version of Visual Studio  I am describing how you can find it out  Windows 10    In the Windows start menu   locate the Visual Studio icon  Right-click to bring up the context menu  Select More  gt  Open File Location Windows Explorer opens with the Visual Studio shortcut highlighted  Right-Click on the Visual Studio and select Properties In the properties dialog  you can find the path in  quot Target  quot

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You can invoke devenv exe  diff list1 txt list2 txt from the VS Developer Command Prompt or  if a Visual Studio instance is already running  you can type Tools DiffFiles in the Command window  with a handy file name completion

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Basically you can t  Version 1 52 1 none of the above worked

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I had this problem as well   No TFS  but I found this article helpful   Specifically  step 1b   Open a Visual Studio command prompt and navigate to the Common7 IDE folder and type  tf diff  configure

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VS Extension  File Differ by Mads Kristensen

[visual-studio] Compare two files in Visual Studio

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