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<title>Make unified diff of two strings</title>
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<h1 class="refname">xdiff_string_diff</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PECL xdiff >= 0.2.0)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">xdiff_string_diff</span> — <span class="dc-title">Make unified diff of two strings</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.xdiff-string-diff-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">string</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>xdiff_string_diff</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$old_data</code></span>
, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$new_data</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$context</code><span class="initializer"> = 3</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">bool</span> <code class="parameter">$minimal</code><span class="initializer"> = false</span></span>
]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Makes an unified diff containing differences between <em><code class="parameter">old_data</code></em> string and
<em><code class="parameter">new_data</code></em> string and returns it. The resulting diff is human-readable.
An optional <em><code class="parameter">context</code></em> parameter specifies how many lines of context should be
added around each change. Setting <em><code class="parameter">minimal</code></em> parameter
to true will result in outputting the shortest patch file possible (can take a long time).
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.xdiff-string-diff-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">old_data</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
First string with data. It acts as "old" data.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">new_data</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Second string with data. It acts as "new" data.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">context</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Indicates how many lines of context you want to include in the diff
result.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">minimal</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Set this parameter to <strong><code>TRUE</code></strong> if you want to minimalize the size of the
result (can take a long time).
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.xdiff-string-diff-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns string with resulting diff or <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> if an internal error happened.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.xdiff-string-diff-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-2460">
<p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>xdiff_string_diff()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
The following code makes unified diff of two articles.
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />$old_article </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">file_get_contents</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'./old_article.txt'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$new_article </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$_REQUEST</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'article'</span><span style="color: #007700">]; </span><span style="color: #FF8000">/* Let's say that someone pasted a new article to html form */<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$diff </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">xdiff_string_diff</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$old_article</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$new_article</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />if (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">is_string</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$diff</span><span style="color: #007700">)) {<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Differences between two articles:\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$diff</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.xdiff-string-diff-notes">
<h3 class="title">Notes</h3>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
This function doesn't work well with binary strings. To make diff of binary
strings use <span class="function"><a href="function.xdiff-string-bdiff.html" class="function">xdiff_string_bdiff()</a></span>/ <span class="function"><a href="function.xdiff-string-rabdiff.html" class="function">xdiff_string_rabdiff()</a></span>.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.xdiff-string-diff-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.xdiff-string-patch.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">xdiff_string_patch()</a> - Patch a string with an unified diff</span></li>
</ul>
</p>
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