Here's how to ignore text differences in files in the Folder Compare:

  1. Load two folders in Beyond Compare's Folder Compare.
  2. Double click to view a pair of XML files in the Text Compare.
  3. Click the Rules toolbar button (referee icon).
  4. Click Edit Grammar.
  5. Click New.
  6. Name it MyElement.
  7. Select Delimited as the category.
  8. Text from: <myElement> to: </myElement>.
  9. Click OK.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Uncheck myElement to make it unimportant.
  12. Change the dropdown at the bottom of the dialog from Use for this view only to Use for all files within parent session or Update session defaults.
  13. Close the Text Compare tab.
  14. In the Folder Compare, click the Rules toolbar button (referee icon).
  15. Check Compare Contents and select Rules-based comparison.
  16. Click OK.
  17. Make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

The default settings in the Folder Compare use file size and modified date for comparison. Rules-based comparison uses the same content comparison method as double clicking to view file contents.

See also the article Define Unimportant Text in Beyond Compare. It describes ignoring differences when viewing a pair of files in the Text Compare.

Answer from Chris Kennedy on Stack Overflow
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Scooter Forums
forum.scootersoftware.com › home › beyond compare 3 discussion › scripting
Beyond Compare 3 Comparing two XML-Files and show output in HTML - Scooter Forums
You can preview this in the interface by loading two base folders, side by side, in the Folder Compare, set the name filter in the toolbar from "*.*" to "*.xml", then use the Display Filters to Show Differences, Edit menu -> Expand All, Edit menu -> Select All Files, Actions menu -> File Compare Report (if this last actions menu item is not visible, the select all files command snagged an archive; use a name filter to remove them or test with a small manual selection of only .xml files).
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 33512147 › beyondcompare-comparison-of-xml-files-ignore-specific-elements-during-folder-c
BeyondCompare comparison of XML files - Ignore specific elements during folder compare - Stack Overflow
Top answer
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Here's how to ignore text differences in files in the Folder Compare:

  1. Load two folders in Beyond Compare's Folder Compare.
  2. Double click to view a pair of XML files in the Text Compare.
  3. Click the Rules toolbar button (referee icon).
  4. Click Edit Grammar.
  5. Click New.
  6. Name it MyElement.
  7. Select Delimited as the category.
  8. Text from: <myElement> to: </myElement>.
  9. Click OK.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Uncheck myElement to make it unimportant.
  12. Change the dropdown at the bottom of the dialog from Use for this view only to Use for all files within parent session or Update session defaults.
  13. Close the Text Compare tab.
  14. In the Folder Compare, click the Rules toolbar button (referee icon).
  15. Check Compare Contents and select Rules-based comparison.
  16. Click OK.
  17. Make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

The default settings in the Folder Compare use file size and modified date for comparison. Rules-based comparison uses the same content comparison method as double clicking to view file contents.

See also the article Define Unimportant Text in Beyond Compare. It describes ignoring differences when viewing a pair of files in the Text Compare.

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Tales from the Evil Empire
weblogs.asp.net › lorenh › comparing-xml-files-with-beyond-compare-3-brilliant
Loren Halvorson's Blog - Comparing XML Files with Beyond Compare 3...Brilliant
A couple of other features in Beyond ... For example to compare two files, you just right click on one file and choose "Select Left Side For Compare", then right click on the other file and say "Compare to {file...}"....
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ExtendsClass
extendsclass.com › xml-diff.html
XML diff - Compare xml online
The difference check is not able to sort tags before compare if the tag orders are mismatching in xml file1 with xml file2 ... convert: PHP to PythonPython to javascriptKotlin to javaTypeScript to JavaScriptXPath to CSS selectorjson to python object onlineJSON to PHPXML to JSON Converter
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Super User
superuser.com › questions › 79920 › how-can-i-diff-two-xml-files
linux - How can I diff two XML files? - Super User
Top answer
1 of 10
132

One approach would be to first turn both XML files into Canonical XML, and compare the results using diff. For example, xmllint can be used to canonicalize XML.

$ xmllint --c14n one.xml > 1.xml
$ xmllint --c14n two.xml > 2.xml
$ diff 1.xml 2.xml

Or as a one-liner.

$ diff <(xmllint --c14n one.xml) <(xmllint --c14n two.xml)
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37

Jukka's answer did not work for me, but it did point to Canonical XML. Neither --c14n nor --c14n11 sorted the attributes, but i did find the --exc-c14n switch did sort the attributes. --exc-c14n is not listed in the man page, but described on the command line as "W3C exclusive canonical format". 

$ xmllint --exc-c14n one.xml > 1.xml
$ xmllint --exc-c14n two.xml > 2.xml
$ diff 1.xml 2.xml

$ xmllint | grep c14
    --c14n : save in W3C canonical format v1.0 (with comments)
    --c14n11 : save in W3C canonical format v1.1 (with comments)
    --exc-c14n : save in W3C exclusive canonical format (with comments)

$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/xmllint
libxml2-2.7.6-14.el6.x86_64
libxml2-2.7.6-14.el6.i686

$ cat /etc/system-release
CentOS release 6.5 (Final)

Warning --exc-c14n strips out the xml header whereas the --c14n prepends the xml header if not there.

🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/sysadmin › xml files comparison / diff?
r/sysadmin on Reddit: XML files comparison / diff?
November 25, 2020 -

I've got a few XML files that are a couple thousand lines long I need to compare and see which values in file A are missing from file B.

Does anyone have an efficient way to diff these? They're not formatted the same at all, so normal text diff programs won't work. I just need to compare which "<value203>...</value203>" aren't in the one file.

Top answer
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5
Beyond compare software is perfect for this
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3
On the phone and in bed so if I'm wrong don't shoot me but if it's valid XML doesn't Powershell have some XML parsing cmdlets? I'd try to import each file into a variable then export (possibly like this - psuedo code don't quote me) and once they are the "same" then use win merge or powershell with get-content and compare-object $file1=import-xml c:\myxml\xml1.xml $file2=import-xml c:\myxml\xml2.xml $file1 | export-xml c:\myxml\newxml1.xml $file2 | export-xml c:\myxml\newxml2.xml Winmerge the two files Or 3. compare-object -referenceobject (get-content c:\myxml\newxml1.xml) -differenceobject (get-content c:\myxml\newxml2.xml) (the compare-object cmdlet can include the switch -includeequal if you want to see the differences AND the equalities)
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Cloudzenia
cloudzenia.com › tools › xml-diff
Understanding XML Diff Tool: A Complete Guide to XML Comparison
Beyond Compare offers a complete XML file comparison solution and is compatible with many systems. It provides a versatile interface along with strong merging capabilities. It is imperative for all individuals dealing with XML diff online, regardless of whether they are developers, data analysts, ...
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Online Text Compare
onlinetextcompare.com › xml
Compare XML files online
FREE two-way XML format, diff and merge tool. No Signup required. Nothing to install. All comparisons are 100% private, secure and happens locally right in your web browser
Find elsewhere
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Beyond_Compare
Beyond Compare - Wikipedia
3 weeks ago - Beyond Compare also was featured in the March 2005 issue of the Windows IT Pro magazine in the "What's Hot" section. Scott Mitchell, writing for MSDN Magazine, identified the program's comparison rules as its most powerful feature. The customizable rules control which differences between two files should be flagged as such. A set of predefined rules is included for the comparison of common file types, such as C++ source code, XML, and HTML files.
Reception
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Stack Overflow
stackoverflow.com › questions › 6422206 › comparing-sorted-xmls-using-beyond-compare-script-and-generate-report
scripting - Comparing (sorted) XMLs using Beyond Compare (script) and Generate Report - Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 1
2

After you install the XML Sort rule it should appear at the top of your file format list and should be used automatically. If it's not, are you running the scheduled task as the same user that installed the format? If not, either:

  • install it again as that user
  • copy the BCFileFormats.xml from your %AppData% directory to the relevant user
  • create a portable BC install (the installer has that option), set it up, and run the scheduled task using it instead of the standard install