In both of the above scenarios, BC3 fails to automatically match/change the column order automatically. This can be done manually via the Session Settings
menu, but is rather time consuming.
Note in the following screenshots, that the left file has a column called priority
which the right file does not have.
Note that in the image below, that the left file's column 5 priority
is being compared with the right file's column 5 companyjob
. All of the following column comparisons are similarly mismatched.
Is there an easy way to easily/automatically configure this compare as I've manually done in the second image?
It appears to me that you can save a comparison session in Beyond Compare (simply referred to as sessions), which is an actual diff between two file system objects. Those settings you're altering above are specific to that session, but you'd like them to be applicable to any other similar session. I wonder if a workaround could be to save the session with your manually entered Data Compare Column Settings and alter the paths of similarly formatted files to make them adopt the same column settings. Let me see...
Consider three files
file1.csv
Column1,Column2,Column3
A,B,C
A,B,C
A,B,C1
file2.csv
Column1,Column3,Column2
A,C,B
A,C,B
A,C1,B
file3.csv
Column1,Column3,Column2
A,C0,B
A,C,B
A,C,B
Here's the default diff between files 1 and 2
And here I alter the Data Compare Column Settings Which now shows no change between these two files with permuted columns.
With that session saved I then edit the address bar to replace file2.csv with the similarly formatted file3.csv and wait to see if the column settings are maintained, looks to me like they are
So I suppose you could persist those column settings in an arbitrary example session where you'll later have to change the paths to the actual files you wish to be diffed at that point in time. A little awkward for sure, it would be much nicer to have those settings apply as a preconfigured setting much like how in a Folder Compare session you can save Filter settings to be applied to new sessions.
I am curious however why your dialogs look different from where I navigate to edit the settings; in particular yours displays a pull down that reads "Use for this view only". What else is listed in that pull down? I'm using version 3.3.8 (build 16340)