Compare Two Lists
Paste one list in each box. See which lines appear in both, which appear in only one, or all the different lines together, with counts for each.
Worked examples
In both lists
First list: apple banana cherry Second list: banana date APPLE
apple banana
banana and apple match in the second list, ignoring capitals.
Only in the first list
First list: apple banana cherry Second list: banana date APPLE
cherry
cherry has no match in the second list.
About Compare Two Lists
Comparing two lists by eye is slow, and the mistakes come in the long ones. You might have last year's and this year's mailing lists, two exports of ids, two folders of file names or two sets of tags. What you want to know is simple: what is in both, what was added and what was removed. This tool answers that straight away.
Paste one list in each box and choose what to show: lines only in the first, only in the second, in both, all the different lines together, or those that appear in just one of the lists. The counts for every group are shown under the result, whichever one you are viewing. Capitals and spaces at the ends of lines are ignored by default, empty lines are skipped, and repeated lines count once. Results keep the order and the spelling of where each line first appeared.
How to use Compare Two Lists
- Paste the first list into the top box and the second into the box below it, one item per line.
- Choose what you want to see: only in one, in both, or all.
- Decide whether capitals and spaces matter.
- Read the counts, then copy the result.
Common uses
- Finding who joined or left between two mailing lists
- Checking which ids are in two exports
- Seeing which files are missing from a folder listing
- Merging two lists of tags without duplicates
Frequently asked questions
How are lines matched?
As whole lines. By default capital letters and spaces around the line are ignored, so Anna and anna count as the same.
What if a line appears twice in one list?
It counts once. The comparison is about which different lines exist, not how many times.
How do I get everything that differs?
Choose in one list but not the other. It shows lines from both lists that have no match on the other side.
Can I do it for large lists?
Yes. Lists of hundreds of thousands of lines are compared quickly.