CODEWITHSUNDEEP
diffunix
Shruti
Shruti

Reputation: 781

difference between the content of two files

I have two files one file subset of other and i want to obtain a file which has contents not common to both.for example

File1

apple
mango
banana
orange
jackfruit
cherry
grapes
eggplant
okra
cabbage

File2

apple
banana
cherry
eggplant
cabbage

The resultant file, difference of above two files 

mango
orange
jackfruit
grapes
okra

Any ideas on this are appreciated.

Upvotes: 8

Views: 7349

Answers (4)

Rajeev
Rajeev

Reputation: 1196

1. Files uncommon to both files

diff --changed-group-format="%<" --unchanged-group-format="%>" file1 file2

2. File unique to first file

diff --changed-group-format="%<" --unchanged-group-format="" file1 file2

3. File unique to second file

diff --changed-group-format="" --unchanged-group-format="%>" file1 file2

Hope it works for you

Upvotes: 0

Antti Ryts&#246;l&#228;
Antti Ryts&#246;l&#228;

Reputation: 1545

1 Only one instance , in either

  • cat File1 File2 | sort | uniq -u

2 Only in first file

  • cat File1 File2 File2 | sort | uniq -u

3 Only in second file

  • cat File1 File1 File2 | sort | uniq -u

Upvotes: 3

ghostdog74
ghostdog74

Reputation: 342719

use awk, no sorting necessary (reduce overheads)

$ awk 'FNR==NR{f[$1];next}(!($1 in f)) ' file2 file
mango
orange
jackfruit
grapes
okra

Upvotes: 2

Mark Byers
Mark Byers

Reputation: 838796

You can sort the files then use comm:

$ comm -23 <(sort file1.txt) <(sort file2.txt)
grapes
jackfruit
mango
okra
orange

You might also want to use comm -3 instead of comm -23:

  -1              suppress lines unique to FILE1
  -2              suppress lines unique to FILE2
  -3              suppress lines that appear in both files

Upvotes: 11

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