Compare XML ignoring order of child elements

Question

Does anybody know of a tool that will compare two XML documents. Belay that mocking… there’s more. I need something that will make sure each node in file 1 is also in file 2 regardless of order. I thought XML Spy would do it with the Ignore Order of Child Nodes option but it didn’t. The following would be considered the same:

<Node>     <Child name="Alpha"/>     <Child name="Beta"/>     <Child name="Charlie"/> </Node>  <Node>     <Child name="Beta"/>     <Child name="Charlie"/>     <Child name="Alpha"/> </Node> 

Answer 1

I wrote a simple python tool for this called xmldiffs:

Compare two XML files, ignoring element and attribute order.

Usage: xmldiffs [OPTION] FILE1 FILE2

Any extra options are passed to the diff command.

Get it at https://github.com/joh/xmldiffs

Answer 2

With Beyond Compare you can use in the File Formats-Settings the XML Sort Conversion. With this option the XML children will be sorted before the diff.

A trial / portable version of Beyond Compare is available.