Aligning rows of like CSV files

[hlubovac]

When I compare two like CSV files (same column definitions, same number of rows even), I get unexpected results (useless, basically).

Instead of getting some left-to-right row comparison (any, for that matter; I know that complete blocks or rows can become misaligned when a simple thing like inserting a line happens), I get all rows from left-file on left side aligned with that many blank lines on the right side (and the opposite for the right-file) - so, two separate blocks, with literally no rows that overlap.

And, this is done for files for which I know they have only some column-values different - so, it's not like they are completely different.

I haven't done a comparison like this for a long time, but I do remember seeing the results in a way that I like in the past (as described here), and I don't have a habit of fiddling with BC settings (literally, ever) - so, could anyone guess what I might be missing here?

macos; BC4; files are large, with 100+ thousand records each, and so loading both sides takes anything from 5-10 minutes to even 30 min on my system - so, it's little frustrating to keep doing with different alignment settings (of which I did try few), because each change resets the processing and the view completely. I blurred out the content within the screeshot below, but the column definitions are exactly the same (the header row), and even values of a block of leftmost columns are exactly the same across all rows.



Thanks!

[Aaron]

Hello,

By default, the Table Compare assumes a Key column and assigns it to Column 1.

A Key (or multiple columns together marked as Key) form a unique item that can be sorted and aligned by and never repeats within the file. Like an EmployeeID column, or FirstName + LastName columns together.

You can right click any column header to set as Key, Standard, or Unimportant. It sounds like these files don't have a key, so you could set Col:1 to Standard. Then in the Session menu -> Session Settings, Alignment tab, you can pick alternate alignments (instead of Sorted, which uses the Key or entire Row to help sort and align).