What is Document Compare

Comparing documents is a very complex function. But we implemented our solution so that you get the most accurate result. Instead of looking for document differences manually, use our Java API to compare docs.

Document comparing is performed by comparing words at the level of characters or whole words. In this case, if only a character was changed, the word will be highlighted as the whole changed.

The most popular are Word Compare and PDF Compare. Therefore, we will show the Java Comparison API using the example of comparing Word files and comparing PDF documents.

Compare PDF files using Java

Comparing PDF files programmatically is a typical task of modern digital workflow. This may be required when you are not sure that your document has not been modified. Or when you know your original PDF has been updated and you want to know how.

To compare two PDFs, just verify them with our Java library. It allows you to diff PDF and find even small changes that would be invisible to the human eye.

Compare Word documents in Java

To compare two Word documents in Java you need to do the same: diff them using our powerful Java library through the example below.

Unlike PDFs, Word documents are easier to change, which is why it can be so important to compare Word documents if you need to make sure that some parts of it or an entire file are unchanged.

Comparing two files

To test how our Java solution works and to diff two files, import files you want to compare and choose an export file format. After files are compared, the document containing the difference of this comparison will be automatically downloaded.

Note that documents to compare should not have any revisions before calling the compare method, so we took care of that in our example:

Compare documents in Java

Input files

Upload the compared file

Run code

Upload the second file to compare

Output format

Select the target format from the list

import com.aspose.words.*;

Document docA = new Document("Input1.docx");
Document docB = new Document("Input2.docx");

// There should be no revisions before comparison.
docA.acceptAllRevisions();
docB.acceptAllRevisions();

docA.compare(docB, "Author Name", new Date());
docA.save("Output.docx");

					Run code

You may freely copy this code and use it in any applicable purpose

How to compare two text files in Java

Install 'Aspose.Words for Java'
Add a library reference (import the library) to your Java project
Load two documents to compare
Accept all revisions before calling the 'compare()' method
Call the 'compare()' method to compare two docs
Call the 'Save()' method, passing an output filename with required extension
Get the result of compression as a separate file

Java library to compare documents

We host our Java packages in Maven repositories. 'Aspose.Words for Java' is a common JAR file containing byte-code. Please follow the step-by-step instructions on how to install it to your Java developer environment.

System Requirements

Java SE 7 and more recent Java versions are supported. We also provide a separate package for Java SE 6 in case you are obliged to use this outdated JRE.

Our Java package is cross-platform and runs on all operating systems with JVM implementation, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS.

For information on optional package dependencies, such as JogAmp JOGL, Harfbuzz font engine, Java Advanced Imaging JAI, please refer to Product Documentation.