Introduction
ExcelCompare is a command line tool (coming soon API) to diff Excel / Open document (ods) (Open office, Libre office) spreadsheets.
It uses the Apache POI library to read Excel files. And the [OdfToolkit] (http://incubator.apache.org/odftoolkit) library to read Open document (ods) files.
This software is distributed under the MIT license.
Features / Limitations
- Identifies extra cells / sheets in addition to common cells.
- Prints all diffs & extra cells on stdout.
- Process exits with 0 if workbooks match, 1 otherwise.
- Works with xls, xlsx, xlsm, ods. You may compare any of these with each other.
- Compares only cell "contents". Formatting, macros are currently ignored.
- Using --ignore1 & --ignore2 (both optional) you may tell the diff to skip any number of sheets / rows / columns / cells.
- Other flags to control diffing (see below for description of these): --diff_numeric_precision, --diff_ignore_formulas, --diff_format.
Report bugs / issues / requests here
Installation
Prerequisites
- Requires Java 1.8 or higher.
- Assumes Java is added to PATH (to check open a cmd and run java -version)
- No other platform specific requirements
- A shell script and a bat script are packaged
Just download the zip file.
Extract it anywhere (and optionally you add the extracted folder to PATH).
macOS
Homebrew makes it easy to install ExcelCompare:
$ brew update
$ brew install excel-compare
Usage
$ excel_cmp <diff-flags> <file1> <file2> [--ignore1 <sheet-ignore-spec> ..] [--ignore2 <sheet-ignore-spec> ..]
Notes:
- --ignore1 (file1) and --ignore2 (file2) are independent of each other
- Give one and only one <sheet-ignore-spec> per sheet
- File path is assumed relative to current directory unless full path is provided
- file1 and/or file2 can be '/dev/null' or '\.\NUL' (on windows) which is treated as empty file. This is useful for using ExcelCompare for git diff.
Diff flags
- --diff_numeric_precision: by default numbers are diffed with double precision, to change that specify this flag as --diff_numeric_precision=0.0001
- --diff_ignore_formulas: by default for cells with formula, formula is compared instead of the evaluated value. Use this flag to compare evaluated value instead
- --diff_format: by default output is in 'excel_cmp' format, use --diff_format=unified to output in Unified Diff format instead
Sheet Ignore Spec
<sheet-name>:<row-ignore-spec>:<column-ignore-spec>:<cell-ignore-spec>
- Leaving <sheet-name> blank corresponds to this spec applying to all sheets, for example ::A will ignore column A in all sheets
- To ignore whole sheet, just provide <sheet-name>
- Any cell satisfying any ignore spec in the sheet (row, col, or cell) will be ignored in diff
- You may provide only <cell-ignore-spec> as - <sheet-name>:::<cell-ignore-spec>
Row Ignore Spec
<comma sep list of row or row-range>
- Row numbers begin from 1
- Range of rows may be provide as: 1-10
- Rows and ranges may be mixed as: 1-10,12,20-30 etc.
Column Ignore Spec
<comma sep list of column or column-range>
- Similar to Row Ignore Spec
- Columns are letters starting with A
Cell Ignore Spec
<comma sep list of cell or cell-range>
- Similar to Row Ignore Spec
- Cells are in usual Excel notation A1 D10
- Range may be provided as A1-D10
Examples
-
Diff all cells
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx -
Ignore Sheet1 in 1.xlsx
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1 -
Ignore Sheet1 in both
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1 --ignore2 Sheet1 -
Ignore column A in both
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1::A --ignore2 Sheet1::A -
Ignore column A across all sheets in both
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 ::A --ignore2 ::A -
Ignore columns A,D and rows 1-5, 20-25
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1:1-5,20-25:A,D --ignore2 Sheet1:1-5,20-25:A,D -
Ignore columns A,D and rows 1-5, 20-25 and cells F6,H8
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1:1-5,20-25:A,D:F6,H8 --ignore2 Sheet1:1-5,20-25:A,D:F6,H8 -
Ignore column A in Sheet1 and column B in Sheet2
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1::A Sheet2::B --ignore2 Sheet1::A Sheet2::B -
Ignore cells A1-B10 in Sheet2 of both files
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet2:::A1-B10 --ignore2 Sheet2:::A1-B10 -
Ignore column A in all sheets of both files
excel_cmp 1.xlsx 2.xlsx --ignore1 ::A --ignore2 ::A
Native ("excel_cmp") Output format
-
Each diff or extra cell is reported per line as follows
DIFF Cell at <Cell> => <Value1> v/s <Value2> EXTRA Cell in <WB> <Cell> => <Value> -
Then a summary
----------------- DIFF ------------------- Sheets: [<Set of sheets with diffs>] Rows: [<Set of rows with diffs>] Cols: [<Set of columns with diffs>] ----------------- EXTRA WB1 ------------------- Sheets: [<Set of extra sheets in WB1>] Rows: [<Set of extra rows in WB1>] Cols: [<Set of extra columns in WB1>] ----------------- EXTRA WB2 ------------------- Sheets: [<Set of extra sheets in WB2>] Rows: [<Set of extra rows in WB2>] Cols: [<Set of extra columns in WB2>] ----------------------------------------- -
Then one line
Excel files <file1> and <file2> differ|match
Examples
- Diffs in cells and extra cells
> excel_cmp xxx.xlsx yyy.xlsx
DIFF Cell at Sheet1!A1 => 'a' v/s 'aa'
EXTRA Cell in WB1 Sheet1!B1 => 'cc'
DIFF Cell at Sheet1!D4 => '4.0' v/s '14.0'
EXTRA Cell in WB2 Sheet1!J10 => 'j'
EXTRA Cell in WB1 Sheet1!K11 => 'k'
EXTRA Cell in WB1 Sheet2!A1 => 'abc'
EXTRA Cell in WB2 Sheet3!A1 => 'haha'
----------------- DIFF -------------------
Sheets: [Sheet1]
Rows: [1, 4]
Cols: [A, D]
----------------- EXTRA WB1 -------------------
Sheets: [Sheet1, Sheet2]
Rows: [1, 11]
Cols: [B, K, A]
----------------- EXTRA WB2 -------------------
Sheets: [Sheet1, Sheet3]
Rows: [10, 1]
Cols: [J, A]
-----------------------------------------
Excel files xxx.xlsx and yyy.xlsx differ
- Only extra cells
excel_cmp xxx.xlsx yyy.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1 --ignore2 Sheet1
EXTRA Cell in WB1 Sheet2!A1 => 'abc'
EXTRA Cell in WB2 Sheet3!A1 => 'haha'
----------------- DIFF -------------------
Sheets: []
Rows: []
Cols: []
----------------- EXTRA WB1 -------------------
Sheets: [Sheet2]
Rows: [1]
Cols: [A]
----------------- EXTRA WB2 -------------------
Sheets: [Sheet3]
Rows: [1]
Cols: [A]
-----------------------------------------
Excel files xxx.xlsx and yyy.xlsx differ
- No diff
excel_cmp xxx.xlsx yyy.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1 Sheet2 Sheet3 --ignore2 Sheet1 Sheet2 Sheet3
----------------- DIFF -------------------
Sheets: []
Rows: []
Cols: []
----------------- EXTRA WB1 -------------------
Sheets: []
Rows: []
Cols: []
----------------- EXTRA WB2 -------------------
Sheets: []
Rows: []
Cols: []
-----------------------------------------
Excel files xxx.xlsx and yyy.xlsx match
Unified Diff output format
- Diffs are reported in the "unified diff" style, with no surrounding context (i.e., a la
diff -U0). - Each sheet containing a diff or an extra cell begins with a header as follows: --! ++!
- Each row containing a diff or an extra cell begins with a line that identifies a contiguous series of cells in the row as follows: @@ , , @@
- Each diff or extra cell is reported as follows: - -... - + +... +
- If there are multiple series of diff or extra cells, the row header and cell data will be repeated, with the column numbers idetifying the start and end of each series.
- There is no summary, and if there are no diffs and no extra cells, the output is empty.
Examples
- Diffs in cells and extra cells
> excel_cmp --diff-format=unified xxx.xlsx yyy.xlsx
--- xxx.xlsx!Sheet1
+++ yyy.xlsx!Sheet1
@@ A1,B1 A1,B1 @@
-a
-cc
+aa
+
@@ D4 D4 @@
-4.0
+14.0
@@ J10 J10 @@
-
+j
@@ K11 K11 @@
-k
+
--- xxx.xlsx!Sheet2
+++ yyy.xlsx!Sheet2
@@ A1 A1 @@
-abc
+
--- xxx.xlsx!Sheet3
+++ yyy.xlsx!Sheet3
@@ A1 A1 @@
-
+haha- Only extra cells
> excel_cmp --diff-format=unified xxx.xlsx yyy.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1 --ignore2 Sheet1
--- xxx.xlsx!Sheet2
+++ yyy.xlsx!Sheet2
@@ A1 A1 @@
-abc
+
--- xxx.xlsx!Sheet3
+++ yyy.xlsx!Sheet3
@@ A1 A1 @@
-
+haha- No diff
> excel_cmp --diff-format=unified xxx.xlsx yyy.xlsx --ignore1 Sheet1 Sheet2 Sheet3 --ignore2 Sheet1 Sheet2 Sheet3