May 05, 2014

I sometimes have the need to compare between different versions of a CSV or Excel file. Often to compare data differences between older and newer versions of the file.

When it’s just a simple CSV file then I initially used some powershell:

Compare-Object $(Get-Content c:\Tfs\Dev\DataDiff\basesample.csv) $(Get-Content C:\Tfs\Dev\DataDiff\samplewithdiffvalues.csv)

This did the job, then I found a decent free comparer for Excel (not CSV format) http://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm))

If you don’t mind paying a little extra and well worth the licence by the way for the comprehensive compare options it offers (not just Excel), Beyond Compare is great for this.

However, I recently found a free add Included as part of Excel 2013 which offers great way of visualising the differences: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx

It’s also available from your start menu (Windows 7) or through Search Charm (Windows 8) as Speadsheet Compare 2013.

February 05, 2014

To add tracing to legacy ASMX service for detailed trouble shooting, add the following to the web.config:

<system.diagnostics>
    <trace autoflush="true" />
    <sources>
    <source name="System.Web.Services.Asmx">
    <listeners>
	      <add type="System.Diagnostics.DefaultTraceListener" name="Default">
	    	<filter type="" />
	      </add>
	      <add initializeData="local.log" type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"
	    name="AsmxTraceFile" traceOutputOptions="LogicalOperationStack, DateTime, Timestamp, ProcessId, ThreadId">
	    	<filter type="" />
	      </add>
    </listeners>
      </source>
    
    </sources>
    <switches>
    	<add name="System.Web.Services.Asmx" value="Verbose"  />
    </switches>
</system.diagnostics>