How can I compare multiple text files (let's say 7) content and store common content in another textfile

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I have a multiple text files and they have content!I need to get all contents and compare them,So I tried reading and storing them in list as each text file context as index of list
like
1.txt in [0] and next 2.txt in [1] and so on...
but i cant compare those... Please Can any one help me!

example :1.txt has values 1 2 3 4
2.txt has values 3 5 6
I should get output as 3 i.e common context in both files similarly if I have many files common content of those all

What I have tried:

I tried using list where all text files are stored in index but i can't compare those!I am beginner and learning c#

Posted 29-Jan-17 2:38am

Member 12972565

Updated 29-Jan-17 6:14am

v3

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[no name] 29-Jan-17 8:46am

I would think that a Dictionary would be more suited to the task.

Member 12972565 29-Jan-17 8:51am

I will be glad if you can help little bit with code!thank you

[no name] 29-Jan-17 9:33am

Yes I am sure that you would. Learning to write code is part of the learning process. You should try it.

Richard MacCutchan 29-Jan-17 9:46am

Start with just 2 files and try comparing them. It is not clear what you are trying to compare, is it just common words or full sentences?

Member 12972565 29-Jan-17 10:03am

just a numbers in a single row

OriginalGriff 29-Jan-17 10:06am

What Richard is saying is that we have no idea what your data looks like, or what results your comparison is supposed to give. As a result, we can't tell you anything about how to approach the problem as we can't see what you need!

So give us examples of two files and show us what the comparisons should do as a result.
Use the "Improve question" widget to edit your question and provide better information.

Member 12972565 29-Jan-17 11:45am

I have updated it..please do check out

Patrice T 29-Jan-17 11:55am

Can you refine examples ?
Are you looking for words?
what if
1 is 1 2 3 4
2 is 3 5 6
3 is 1 5

what if
1 is 1 2 3 4
2 is 3 5 6
3 is 1 3 5

what if
1 is 1 23 4
2 is 3 5 6
3 is 1 35

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-29T06:14:00

This isn't complex if you think about it and take is stage by stage.
Read each file into a string:

C#

string data = File.ReadAllText(pathToFile);

Break that into individual segments to compare:

C#

string[] bits = data.Split(' ', '\n');

If you add each of these to a collection, you can later use a loop to compare them:

C#

List<string[]> toCompare = new List<string[]>();
...
toCompare.Add(bits);

And the loop is pretty simple:

C#

string[] soFar = toCompare[0];
for (int i = 1; i < toCompare.Count; i++)
    {
    soFar = soFar.Intersect(toCompare[i]).ToArray();
    if (soFar.Count() == 0) break;
    }

The Linq Intersect method returns all the common values in the two collections.