Not to show hidden symbols as distinction of two files in Eclipse compare editor

Question

Since I've added code autoformat to Eclipse, it's very difficult to merge my local copies with svn files, because eclipse compare editor shows very many "changes".

Several spaces or tabs or new lines can't change any logic in my Java code, so is it possible not to show distinctions between lines of code in Compare Editor if there were changed only several tabs/spaces/hidden symbols?

Answer 1

There are two helpful things. First a setting for the compare view: Window > Preferences General > Compare/Patch Ignore White Spaces (it is also in the text pane's content menu). Second you have a structure pane above the text views or in the outline view (Setting Show structure compare in Outline view when possible) that shows you semantic differences. I find this most helpful as I don't care for whitespaces or different order of elements. A purely textual compare is much too basic.