Copying single (or few) character differences instead of whole lines

[hydrochloric]

Hi all,

I often find myself comparing documents that have similar, but not identical formatting for each line. The formatting differences are unimportant for comparison, and I know enough to set up the "unimportant text" to hide all the differences caused by that. However, when an actual important difference appears I'm unaware how to copy ONLY the different character(s). The formatting needs to remain unaltered, just the values changed.

I know that's not so clear, so for example:

[Old File]	[New File]
Variable_1, (S16)(1) @original	#define Variable_1 (S16)(2)

In the above, I can have BC4 ignore "@original", "#define" etc., and it compares the lines successfully, highlighting only the actual difference, represented in bold here. However what I would like to copy from new to old is just the 2 value. The only copy commands I can find copy the whole line from side to side, of course altering the file's format and rendering it useless. Sure, I can do the copying manually, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the fancy software!

I assume there's a way I can have BC4 only replace the different characters from one side to another, right?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Thanks for the example. While BC4 has several tools for defining importance/unimportance in different ways, but the Copy operation does still work on the whole line. It's on our wishlist to expand some of these behaviors, but they are bigger wishlist items and not a feature we'll be able to tackle soon.

[hydrochloric]

Ah, that's unfortunate in the immediate. Oh well, at least it's still a LOT easier than going through the whole 1000+ line file! Guess I won't have to give up my typist skills yet.

[Aaron]

As a workflow tip: If the variable number is constant on a specific side, a Find/Replace logic might be able to find and then replace them. Either before or after the Copy Line command.