Forum Discussion
Using VBA code to highlight the differences between two cells of text
Hi There,
I would like to be able to compare two cells of text in excel, and highlight the differences between them. I found the following VBA code which highlights the first difference in red, however it also then highlights all of the remaining text in the cell in red (rather than just the differences):
Sub highlight()
Dim xRg1 As Range
Dim xRg2 As Range
Dim xTxt As String
Dim xCell1 As Range
Dim xCell2 As Range
Dim I As Long
Dim J As Integer
Dim xLen As Integer
Dim xDiffs As Boolean
On Error Resume Next
If ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Count > 1 Then
xTxt = ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.AddressLocal
Else
xTxt = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.AddressLocal
End If
lOne:
Set xRg1 = Application.InputBox("Range A:", "Kutools for Excel", xTxt, , , , , 8)
If xRg1 Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
If xRg1.Columns.Count > 1 Or xRg1.Areas.Count > 1 Then
MsgBox "Multiple ranges or columns have been selected ", vbInformation, "Kutools for Excel"
GoTo lOne
End If
lTwo:
Set xRg2 = Application.InputBox("Range B:", "Kutools for Excel", "", , , , , 8)
If xRg2 Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
If xRg2.Columns.Count > 1 Or xRg2.Areas.Count > 1 Then
MsgBox "Multiple ranges or columns have been selected ", vbInformation, "Kutools for Excel"
GoTo lTwo
End If
If xRg1.CountLarge <> xRg2.CountLarge Then
MsgBox "Two selected ranges must have the same numbers of cells ", vbInformation, "Kutools for Excel"
GoTo lTwo
End If
xDiffs = (MsgBox("Click Yes to highlight similarities, click No to highlight differences ", vbYesNo + vbQuestion, "Kutools for Excel") = vbNo)
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
xRg2.Font.ColorIndex = xlAutomatic
For I = 1 To xRg1.Count
Set xCell1 = xRg1.Cells(I)
Set xCell2 = xRg2.Cells(I)
If xCell1.Value2 = xCell2.Value2 Then
If Not xDiffs Then xCell2.Font.Color = vbRed
Else
xLen = Len(xCell1.Value2)
For J = 1 To xLen
If Not xCell1.Characters(J, 1).Text = xCell2.Characters(J, 1).Text Then Exit For
Next J
If Not xDiffs Then
If J <= Len(xCell2.Value2) And J > 1 Then
xCell2.Characters(1, J - 1).Font.Color = vbRed
End If
Else
If J <= Len(xCell2.Value2) Then
xCell2.Characters(J, Len(xCell2.Value2) - J + 1).Font.Color = vbRed
End If
End If
End If
Next
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End SubHere is a screenshot of what this code does:
But this is what I would like it to do:
Is there a way to amend the above VBA code to do this? Or if there is a completely different way of highlighting the differences, I'd very much welcome that too.
Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you.
3 Replies
- peiyezhuBronze Contributor
I would like to compare text file with vim. vim -d a.txt aa.txt
To analyze the text completely would be very complex, and it would probably be very slow too.
- K_TF_2015Copper Contributor
Thank you HansVogelaar.