Comparing Files

[nmretd]

I want to run a file compare for 2 separate directories and see what differences there are between the files that are compared.

How can I achieve this in VB ?

[Crazy D]

Use Beyond Compare.. it's the best compare tool I've seen around.
If you want to do it yourself in VB, figure out how you want to disaplay the differences.
The idea is easy.. files that are not exacly the same size can never be the same.. then the ones that do have the same size, open them and ready byte for byte and compare them, as soon as they're not equeal, you have 2 different files...
to display what the differences are depends I think on how you want to display it to a user. I'd recommend to download beyond compare (since windiff sucks hard) and see how they show it (then you also know why it's the best tool around).

[nmretd]

Thanks for your reply Crazy D.

Where can I download Beyond Compare from ?

[Crazy D]

Good point... :-) http://www.scootersoftware.com/

[nmretd]

Beyond Compare is great Crazy D. But just out of interest what function would I use to run a simple file compare in VB. Can you give me a quick example.

thanks.

[Crazy D]

hi
something to start with...

Dim lFilePos As Long
Dim b1 As Byte, b2 As Byte
Dim bDifferent As Boolean

bDifferent = False
lFilePos = 1

Open "File1.ext" For Binary Access Read As #1 Len = Len(b1)
Open "File2.ext" For Binary Access Read As #2 Len = Len(b1)
    Do Until EOF(1) Or EOF(2)
        Get #1, , b1
        Get #2, , b2
        lFilePos = lFilePos + 1
        If b1 <> b2 Then
            bDifferent = True
            Exit Do
        End If
    Loop
Close #1
Close #2
If bDifferent Then
    MsgBox "NOt the same"
Else
    MsgBox "the same"
End If

it works, just tested it.. quick though so watch out for errors....
hth

[nmretd]

Thanks again.

nmretd.