Data Compare not aligning properly ("Unsorted alignment" did not fix)

[numberQ]

I'm comparing two rather large CSV files (~ 500-600 rows), and the alignment is off. I've seen that checking the "Unsorted Alignment" box can fix alignment issues, but if anything this made it worse.

The issue I'm having is that I want to sort by a specific column, so I made it a key column. However, that column is also one that may contain differences, so whenever there is a difference in that column it separates the comparison into two orphans. This is despite every other column for that row being equal in both documents.

I'm not sure what other information you might need to help with this, so ask and I'll provide.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Besides making the new column the Key, you also made Column 1 Standard (not key), correct?

The issue is that the Key Column(s) must be unique and must match exactly. You can set one or more columns as the Key; if multiple, they form together to be the key. One example might be both FirstName and LastName columns. However, only the Key controls the alignment and if it does not match exactly the rows will not align. "Unsorted alignment" controls whether the file's rows are alphabetically sorted by Key or not, before the alignment takes place.

If you do not have a suitable Key, and need a close match, you would need to use the Text Compare session type, which does offer closeness matching per line.