Question

I need to perform Diffs between Java strings. I would like to be able to rebuild a string using the original string and diff versions. Has anyone done this in Java? What library do you use?

String a1; // This can be a long text String a2; // ej. above text with spelling corrections String a3; // ej. above text with spelling corrections and an additional sentence  Diff diff = new Diff(); String differences_a1_a2 = Diff.getDifferences(a,changed_a); String differences_a2_a3 = Diff.getDifferences(a,changed_a);     String[] diffs = new String[]{a,differences_a1_a2,differences_a2_a3}; String new_a3 = Diff.build(diffs); a3.equals(new_a3); // this is true 

Answer 1

This library seems to do the trick: google-diff-match-patch. It can create a patch string from differences and allow to reapply the patch.

edit: Another solution might be to https://code.google.com/p/java-diff-utils/