C++: Compare Two Word Documents for Differences

Comparison of two versions of a document is the process of checking the new version against the previous one to identify changes made by different contributors. By comparing documents, legal staffs can easily review contracts to determine what changes have been made or still need to be made, and teachers can quickly compare student papers to determine whether or not necessary changes have been applied. In this article, you will learn how to compare two Word documents in C++ using Spire.Doc for C++.

The following is a screenshot of the two Word documents we’re going to compare.

Install Spire.Doc for C++

There are two ways to integrate Spire.Doc for C++ into your application. One way is to install it through NuGet, and the other way is to download the package from our website and copy the libraries into your program. Installation via NuGet is simpler and more recommended. You can find more details by visiting the following link.

Integrate Spire.Doc for C++ in a C++ Application

Compare Two Word Documents in C++

Spire.Doc for C++ allows to compare two Word documents and save the result in a third document. When opening this document with MS Word, you can see all changes that have been made to the original document, including insertions, deletions as well as formatting modifications. The following are the detailed steps.

• Load two Word documents separately while initialing two different Document objects.
• Compare these two documents using Document->Compare() method.
• Save the result in a third Word document using Document->SaveToFile() method.

#include "Spire.Doc.o.h"

using namespace Spire::Doc;

int main() {

	//Load the first document
	Document* doc1 = new Document(L"C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Original.docx");

	//Load the second document
	Document* doc2 = new Document(L"C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Revised.docx");

	//Compare the second document on the basis of the first document 
	doc1->Compare(doc2, L"Patrick");

	//Save to a docx file
	doc1->SaveToFile(L"output/Result.docx", Spire::Doc::FileFormat::Docx2013);

	doc1->Close();
	doc2->Close();
	delete doc1;
	delete doc2;
}

Apply for a Temporary License

If you'd like to remove the evaluation message from the generated documents, or to get rid of the function limitations, please request a 30-day trial license for yourself.