Compare two lists
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How to use it
- Paste one item per line into lists A and B. You can paste a column directly from Excel.
- For comma, tab or semicolon lists, choose a separator above each input. Auto detection prefers line breaks, then tabs, commas and semicolons.
- Choose Side by side or Unified. Use Differences to see −, + and ≈ rows; check both originals on each ≈ row.
- Follow A’s order or sort alphabetically. Copy diff copies the complete comparison regardless of filters. Expand the section below the diff to copy separate lists or save TXT files.
Examples
Invitations and replies
If A contains Amy, Ben, Cara and Amy, while B contains Amy and Dana, the shared item is Amy. Ben and Cara are only in A; Dana is only in B. A has one extra occurrence, so its duplicate count is 1.
Different email spellings
With default options, Kim@a.com matches kim@a.com . A yellow ≈ row shows both originals. Separate list exports keep the first spelling from A.
Details
Original values are kept separate from comparison keys. By default, matching ignores case and edge whitespace. The diff has one row per key. A order preserves A and uses the longest common subsequence of both lists to place B-only items near their neighbors. Reordered shared items still appear once. Above 20,000 input items combined, it shows A followed by B-only items and displays a notice. Alphabetical sorting uses the page language.
The A and B totals count all items after blank handling. The duplicate count is the number of extra occurrences: an item appearing three times contributes two duplicates. The expanded duplicate list includes the first occurrence, so it shows a count of three, along with counts for distinct original spellings. All duplicate checks use the current comparison options.
NFKC normalization aligns full-width letters, composed and decomposed Hangul, and compatibility characters such as circled digits. Ignoring punctuation and symbols helps compare phone numbers but can also merge distinct product codes. Ignoring all whitespace removes internal and edge whitespace. Dropping blanks removes originals that are empty or contain only whitespace; a nonblank symbol-only value remains an item even if its normalized key is empty.
An ≈ row means the first originals differ but match under your rules. Other spellings within one list appear in its duplicate details. Line numbers refer to physical source lines, so comma-separated entries can share a line number. The diff starts with 500 rows; Show more adds 500 at a time. Separate TXT and CSV exports contain full results regardless of filters. Copy diff also copies every row and represents ≈ pairs as a minus line followed by a plus line. Comparison and download preparation run in your browser; inputs are never sent or stored.
Frequently asked questions
What if an item contains a comma?
Choose line breaks and put one item on each line. This is a list splitter, not a quoted CSV parser. Auto mode chooses line breaks whenever they exist, so select commas explicitly for a multi-line comma list. Explicit separators also split at line breaks.
Do empty inputs or final line breaks count?
An untouched empty input always has zero items. A single final line break terminates the last item. Earlier blank lines and empty fields between separators remain if Drop blank items is off. One blank item produces empty-looking TXT output, so check the count too.
Does a match mean these are the same person?
Only the text is compared under your selected rules. The tool does not infer phone country codes, email aliases or personal identity. Ignoring symbols also removes email dots and plus signs, so review both originals on ≈ rows before using the results.
Can I open the CSV in Excel?
The export includes a UTF-8 BOM for Unicode text. It preserves original values, including any formula-like prefixes. For untrusted input, import the value column as text in your spreadsheet application. Each combined item appears once, with its status in the second column.
Why can an item appear in both In both and Differences?
An ≈ item matches under your rules but has different original text, so it belongs in both filters. A difference in occurrence counts alone is not a text difference. Side by side shows both source lines and counts.