compare contents of 2 files?

[softwareguy74]

Hi,

In order to help me with versioning control from a text file that I receive off the web, I was wondering if there was a way to compare the contents of say a text file named categories.txt and categoriesnew.txt.

I thought about just comparing the size of the 2 files and if there was a difference, I would assume that there has been some updates.. But then I realized that the file size may be identical if the same amount of text was put in as was taken out..

Anyway to compare the contents of these 2 files to return False if the same or True if different? I'm using VB6 Pro..

Any help would be appreciated..

Dan

[softwareguy74]

Nevermind.. I just found the solution..

use the LIKE function:

sResult = "string1" LIKE "string2"

Returns 0 if False and -1 if True..

Dan

[HeSaidJoe]

[code]
'something to think about

Option Explicit
Option Compare Text

Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim x As String, y As String
Dim sResult As Boolean
x = "DirtBagDog"
y = "DirtBagDog"

sResult = "x" Like "y"
If sResult = True Then
MsgBox "Like = Same"
Else
MsgBox "Like = Different"
End If


Dim sresult2 As Integer
sresult2 = StrComp(x, y)
If sresult2 = 0 Then
MsgBox "strComp = Same"
Else
MsgBox "strComp = Different"
End If

End Sub
[code]

[Jop]

Here's some code I use in one of my oh-so-cool programs
You could also use Open File For Binary... it's faster.

'first check the filesize
If FileLen(OLDFILE) <> FileLen(NEWFILE) Then 
'= updated
'do all the things you need and
Exit Sub/Function 'to prevent it to display it's updated twice :)
End If

'Now the filechecking if the size is the same.
Open OLDFILE For Input As #1
Open NEWFILE For Input As #2
Do While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, tmp1
Line Input #2, tmp2
If tmp1 <> tmp2 Then '= Updated!
'Do the things you need
Exit Sub/Function
End IF
Loop

'If the code reaches here there's nothing updated!

Get the idea?

whoohee this is my 800th post