Software To Compare Code Changes

[quakeworld]

hi. i'm looking a (free) program to compare 2 versions of VBA code in MS Access (contained in 2 separate .mdbs) and point out what the differences are. reason i'm asking is i messed up and lost track of the changes i've made in a module i was working on and want to make sure that the latest version i'm using contains the changes i've made. thanks

 

[Cogman]

Not the way you want. (MS Access? Why do you want to dump changes here?)

There is software which manages code changes/difference checking/and handling conflict resolution. It is called version control software. Things like SVN, GIT and Mercurial. All free.

For an individual, GIT is probably the easiest to get up and running (you don't need a centralized server to do it).

Whatever you do, I recommend setting up and using one of these techs.


To check for differences between two files. Look here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1830962/file-differencing-software-on-windows

 

[brandonb]

I use SourceGear Diffmerge.

http://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/

 

[Schmide]

On windows

TortoiseSVN

Even inf not in a repository, select 2 files, right click->TortoisSVN->Diff

 

[wand3r3r]

Depending on what's in the files:
Winmerge
Kdiff

 

[quakeworld]

these tools look like they'll do the job. will test em all. thanks!

 

[KLin]

textpad can compare diffs in 2 text files. Copy/past the vba module into text files then compare them.

 

[slugg]

Notepad++ Compare plugin is pretty good, too.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Eclipse does it. Does it nicely.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Notepad++ Compare plugin is pretty good, too.

Thanks, this is nice. I might finally stop missing Windiff from old versions of Visual Studio.

 

[Markbnj]

Thanks, this is nice. I might finally stop missing Windiff from old versions of Visual Studio.

I think you can still get it:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=18546

I've been using Winmerge for a few years and it works great.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I can still run Windiff in an XP VM, but my work desktop runs Windows 8.1 now since we need the SDK. Sigh.

 

[slugg]

WinMerge is good stuff, but I use Notepad++ as my default "external" editor. In other words, I still use full-fledged IDEs for real work, but if I need to mess with some random files quickly (rather than dealing with a whole project), Notepad++ is fast and does it all. So having the Compare plugin built-in is pretty useful. Not the most comprehensive diff tool in the world, but it fits nicely with Notepad++.

Pretty much all the tools mentioned in this thread are good. I'm just sharing what works for my particular workflow.