Comparison Options

Compare XML lets you fine-tune how element names, attribute names, and values are matched. These options are useful when your XML inputs come from different systems that format or encode data slightly differently.

Array Comparison Method

Choose how repeated child elements are matched:

• By Index — matches elements position by position.
• LCS — uses Longest Common Subsequence to detect insertions and deletions.
• Unordered — treats sibling elements as a set, ignoring order.

See the Array Comparison Methods guide for detailed examples.

Ignore Key Case

When enabled, element and attribute names are compared without case sensitivity.

<!-- Base -->
<User>Alice</User>

<!-- Contrast -->
<user>Alice</user>

With Ignore Key Case, these elements are considered the same because User and user are treated as the same element name. Without it, the second document reports user as added and User as deleted.

This option is helpful when comparing XML produced by APIs or databases that use inconsistent casing conventions.

Ignore Value Case

When enabled, text and attribute values are compared without case sensitivity.

<!-- Base -->
<status>ACTIVE</status>

<!-- Contrast -->
<status>active</status>

With Ignore Value Case, the values are considered equal. Without it, the status is reported as changed. This option only affects string values; numeric or boolean-like text is still compared as text.

Combining Options

Options can be used together. For example, enabling both Ignore Key Case and Ignore Value Case lets you compare XML from case-insensitive systems without noise from formatting differences.

You can toggle these options in the Settings panel before running a comparison.