How To Compare Text Changes
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What a diff actually computes
Text diffs are how developers, writers, legal teams, and reviewers see what actually changed. “I updated the doc” tells you nothing. A diff tells you exactly which words moved, which clauses were added, which numbers were tweaked. The difference between diff-illiterate and diff-fluent is hours a week in code review, contract review, and document review. This guide covers how diff algorithms work (line-based, word-based, character-based), the diff formats you’ll encounter (unified, context, side-by-side), practical diffing for code versus prose versus contracts, and the tools that go beyond naive line-level comparison.
Granularity — line, word, or character
A diff algorithm finds the minimum set of edits that transforms one string into another. “Minimum” is the key word — there are always many valid edit sequences, but the readable one is the shortest.
Common diff formats
Code diff tools handle code well; prose diffs need different care.