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Table Diff

Compares two tables by a chosen or inferred key column and lists added, removed and changed rows cell by cell, side by side or as a change log.

Last month’s file and this month’s, answered cell by cell: what was added, what was removed, and in the rows that survived, which cells changed and from what to what. Columns are paired by name rather than by position, so a column inserted in the middle does not make everything after it look different.

🔒 Runs entirely in your browserdiffcomparecsvaudit

Before

Drop the earlier table

Read in this tab. Nothing is uploaded. Files from Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Western Excel (CP949, Shift_JIS, GBK, Windows-1252) are recognised.

After

Drop the later table

Read in this tab. Nothing is uploaded. Files from Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Western Excel (CP949, Shift_JIS, GBK, Windows-1252) are recognised.

Columns are paired by name, not by position, so a column inserted in the middle does not make every column after it look different. Numbers are compared as numbers, so 1,000 and 1000 are the same. Neither file leaves this tab.

How to use it

  1. Drop the before and the after

    Order matters here: added and removed are relative to the first file.

  2. Choose the key column

    The column that says which row is which — an order number, an employee id. Automatic looks for a column that is unique on both sides, and says which one it picked.

  3. Filter to what you care about

    Differences only is the default. Changed cells are highlighted with the old value struck through and the new one beside it.

  4. Download the change log

    One row per changed cell, which is the shape an audit trail wants. The side-by-side export is the other shape, for reading.

Common questions

Everything after row 40 shows as changed

No key column was found, so rows were compared in file order, and a row inserted at 40 shifts everything below it by one. Pick a key column and the noise disappears.

Is 1,000 different from 1000?

Not when the column was read as numeric — numbers are compared as numbers. If the column came in as text they are two different strings, which the column statistics tool will show you.

What if the key repeats?

Rows with the same key are paired in the order they appear, and the page says how many there were. A key that repeats is usually itself the problem you were looking for.

A column exists in only one file

It is shown, tagged with which side it came from, and it does not count towards a row being changed. A new column added this month should not make every row look modified.

Feed it from

Next

These accept what this tool produces, so the result can go straight in.