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Problem with "Use columns range"

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:14 pm
by mmorrell
I'm evaluating this software for purchase. I am having some issues comparing flat text files and skipping certain byte ranges or columns. I've got 100 byte records and I want to ignore any differences found in positions 6-12.

So under the Use columns range field I type in "1-5, 13-100” But some files return every record as being different in positions 6-12. These positions are highlighted red and everything else is blue.

What am I doing wrong to make every record be marked as a difference in the area where I specifically want to ignore?

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:17 am
by grigsoft
Currently inline changes highlighting is ignoring any comparison options. However if there are no other differences in lines, line should be considered same and not highlighted. Try switching LinesVew and check if there are some blanks highlighted. Or use Alt+F8 to jump to next change within line. If nothing would detect other changes in line, I will appreciate if you could send me files or at least problem lines.

Thank you!

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:44 pm
by mmorrell
Thanks for your quick reply. I believe that we figured out what is wrong.

Our records are not the same exact length. Compare It is smart enough not to flag every byte after the field that is not the same legth and correctly does not show differences for the data after the field that is not the same length. But if you use columns and include enough bytes to skip beyond the differing field, it still flags the entire record as being changed, even though the only change is due to the area that I want it to ignore. For similar files where the fields (positions) that I want to ignore are always the same length as the file/record being compared to, the program works exactly as I would expect. So the only issue is when the records are not the same length.

I can send you a small sample file if this would help. This file would also be the same as our delimited file issue. What address should I send the file to?

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:10 pm
by grigsoft
Yes, please send it to support@grigsoft.com . I will fix that.