https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar

A high level diffing library for rust based on diffs
https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar

diff patch rust unified-diff

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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A high level diffing library for rust based on diffs

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar
• Owner: mitsuhiko
• License: apache-2.0
• Created: 2021-01-17T21:19:30.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-02-05T22:12:45.000Z (4 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-04-23T21:02:12.401Z (about 1 month ago)
• Topics: diff, patch, rust, unified-diff
• Language: Rust
• Homepage: https://insta.rs/similar
• Size: 472 KB
• Stars: 1,075
• Watchers: 11
• Forks: 37
• Open Issues: 15
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
  • Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
# Similar: A Diffing Library

[![Crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/d/similar.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/similar)

[![License](https://img.shields.io/github/license/mitsuhiko/similar)](https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar/blob/main/LICENSE)

[![rustc 1.60.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/rust-1.60%2B-orange.svg)](https://img.shields.io/badge/rust-1.60%2B-orange.svg)

[![Documentation](https://docs.rs/similar/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/similar)

Similar is a dependency free crate for Rust that implements different diffing

algorithms and high level interfaces for it. It is based on the

[pijul](https://pijul.org/) implementation of the Patience algorithm and

inherits some ideas from there. It also incorporates the Myers' diff

algorithm which was largely written by Brandon Williams.  This library was

built for the [insta snapshot testing library](https://insta.rs).

```rust

use similar::{ChangeTag, TextDiff};

fn main() {

    let diff = TextDiff::from_lines(

        "Hello World\nThis is the second line.\nThis is the third.",

        "Hallo Welt\nThis is the second line.\nThis is life.\nMoar and more",

    );

    for change in diff.iter_all_changes() {

        let sign = match change.tag() {

            ChangeTag::Delete => "-",

            ChangeTag::Insert => "+",

            ChangeTag::Equal => " ",

        };

        print!("{}{}", sign, change);

    }

}

```

## Screenshot

![terminal highlighting](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mitsuhiko/similar/main/assets/terminal-inline.png)

## What's in the box?

* Myers' diff

* Patience diff

* Hunt–McIlroy / Hunt–Szymanski LCS diff

* Diffing on arbitrary comparable sequences

* Line, word, character and grapheme level diffing

* Text and Byte diffing

* Unified diff generation

## Related Projects

* [insta](https://insta.rs) snapshot testing library

* [similar-asserts](https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar-asserts) assertion library

## License and Links

* [Documentation](https://docs.rs/similar/)

* [Issue Tracker](https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar/issues)

* [Examples](https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar/tree/main/examples)

* License: [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/mitsuhiko/similar/blob/main/LICENSE)