Line diff vs character diff — which should I use?

Line diff is standard for source code and most text — it shows which lines changed. Character (or word) diff is better for prose where changes within a line matter. Most tools default to line diff with intra-line highlighting.

Why does my diff show every line as changed?

This usually means line endings differ (CRLF vs LF) or there is trailing whitespace. Normalize line endings and trim whitespace before diffing to get a meaningful comparison.

TASK

Compare two texts and show the differences

Diff two versions of a text to see insertions, deletions, and modifications at the line or character level.

1

Comparing two text versions reveals what changed — essential for reviewing edits, comparing configs, or debugging output differences. A diff shows added lines (+), removed lines (-), and unchanged context.
2

Text Diff →
Paste the original and modified text. The tool produces a unified diff with + and - markers, and optionally a side-by-side view.
3

text-diff
View recipe Open in Toolchain

Use the chain to diff two texts and summarize the change statistics (lines added, removed, changed) in one pass.

Frequently asked questions

Line diff vs character diff — which should I use?: Line diff is standard for source code and most text — it shows which lines changed. Character (or word) diff is better for prose where changes within a line matter. Most tools default to line diff with intra-line highlighting.
Why does my diff show every line as changed?: This usually means line endings differ (CRLF vs LF) or there is trailing whitespace. Normalize line endings and trim whitespace before diffing to get a meaningful comparison.