Hendrik van Rooyen wrote:
On Friday 31 July 2009 11:25:17 learner learner wrote:
Hi all,

I want to compare two text files line by line and eliminate the
matching/repeated line and store the unmatched/leftout lines into a third
file or overwrite into one of them.

This is not as simple as it seems.

You will probably be better off using diff, or,
if it is a learning exercise, studying its source.

- Hendrik



It is not only "not simple," it's totally underspecified.


Learner:

If this is a homework assignment, you should read the whole assignment, and see what it says. Without knowing something about the text files, I couldn't even guess what the real goal is.

For example, if the text files are really text (e.g. a letter to grandma), then we want a context-sensitive comparison, the kind that Windiff, RCSDiff, DiffMerge, and others can do.

If the text files are each a list of items, with order and duplication irrelevant, then your best bet is probably to build a set from each, and difference the sets.

DaveA
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