In this article, I have mentioned how we can compare two files side by side using Visual Studio(VS) Code, as it is very common to check file or code difference between 2 files in Visual Studio Code.

So here are the steps to compare two (2) files in Visual Studio(VS) Code, I will be comparing 2 text files in this example, but you can text Code files also:

  1. Open both the files in VS Code.
  2. From the left Explorer panel, right-click the first file and choose "Select for Compare" from the right-click menu.
  3. Then right-click the second file and choose Compare with Selected.
    compare-2-files-visual-studio-vs-code
  4. Both the files will be opened in the main panel, side by side and you will see difference between both files as "+" or "-" sign. For example, I compared 2 text files and here is output
    compare-two-files-vs-code

Using Command Line

If you have Visual Studio Code installed, you can compare 2 files using the Command line.

  1. Open VS Code
  2. Launch Terminal (Click on "Terminal" -> "New Terminal")
  3. Then use below code
    code -d sampleText.txt sampleTextNew.txt?
  4. This will open the main panel and show the difference between both files.

That's it.

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