Comparing text, analyzing content, and transforming strings are daily tasks for developers. Whether you're reviewing code changes, debugging configuration differences, checking word counts, or previewing documentation, reliable text tools streamline these workflows.

This guide covers the essential text utilities developers need — from diff text comparison to case conversion, Markdown rendering, and string escaping.

Text Diff & Comparison

A text comparer (or diff checker) highlights differences between two text inputs. This is essential for code reviews, configuration debugging, and verifying changes before deployment.

How Text Diff Works

Diff algorithms (like Myers' algorithm used in Git) find the longest common subsequence between two texts, then mark additions, deletions, and unchanged sections:

// Original text (left)
function greet(name) {
  return "Hello, " + name;
}

// Modified text (right)
function greet(name, greeting = "Hello") {
  return greeting + ", " + name + "!";
}

// Diff output shows:
- function greet(name) {
+ function greet(name, greeting = "Hello") {
-   return "Hello, " + name;
+   return greeting + ", " + name + "!";
  }

Diff View Modes

• Side by side — Original left, modified right (best for wide screens)
• Inline/Unified — Single column with +/- markers (compact view)
• Word-level diff — Highlights changed words within lines
• Character-level diff — Shows exact character changes

Common Text Comparison Scenarios

• Code reviews — Verify pull request changes
• Config debugging — Compare working vs broken configuration
• YAML compare online — Diff Kubernetes manifests or Docker Compose files
• API responses — Compare expected vs actual JSON output
• Database exports — Find differences in SQL dumps
• Log analysis — Compare logs from different environments

The Text Comparer provides side-by-side and inline diff views with syntax highlighting for common formats.

List Comparison & Set Operations

List comparison finds differences between two lists of items — identifying duplicates, unique items, and common elements. This is faster than manual comparison and handles large datasets efficiently.

Set Operations on Lists

List A: apple, banana, cherry, date
List B: banana, date, elderberry, fig

// Union (all unique items from both)
apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry, fig

// Intersection (common to both)
banana, date

// Difference A - B (only in A)
apple, cherry

// Difference B - A (only in B)
elderberry, fig

// Symmetric Difference (in A or B, but not both)
apple, cherry, elderberry, fig

List Comparison Use Cases

• Database migrations — Compare table columns before/after
• API endpoints — Find added/removed routes between versions
• Dependencies — Compare package.json or requirements.txt
• User permissions — Find differences in role assignments
• Server inventory — Compare hostnames across environments
• Find duplicates — Identify repeated entries in data

Input Formats

Lists can be separated by:

• Newlines (one item per line)
• Commas (CSV-style)
• Semicolons or custom delimiters

The List Comparer performs set operations and shows results with counts for each category.

Text Analysis & Case Conversion

A text analyzer provides statistics about content — word counts, character counts, line counts, and reading time estimates. Combined with case conversion, it's essential for content preparation and code transformation.

Text Statistics

Input: "Hello, World! This is a sample text."

Statistics:
- Characters: 38 (with spaces)
- Characters: 32 (without spaces)
- Words: 7
- Sentences: 2
- Lines: 1
- Paragraphs: 1
- Reading time: < 1 min (~200 wpm)

Case Conversion Types

Input: "user profile settings"

lowercase:    user profile settings
UPPERCASE:    USER PROFILE SETTINGS
Title Case:   User Profile Settings
Sentence case: User profile settings

// Programming cases
camelCase:    userProfileSettings
PascalCase:   UserProfileSettings
snake_case:   user_profile_settings
CONSTANT_CASE: USER_PROFILE_SETTINGS
kebab-case:   user-profile-settings
dot.case:     user.profile.settings

When to Use Case Conversion

• Variable naming — Convert between JavaScript camelCase and Python snake_case
• CSS classes — Convert to kebab-case
• Constants — Transform to SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE
• Database columns — Standardize naming conventions
• API fields — Match JSON field naming requirements

The Text Analyzer and Utilities provides real-time statistics and one-click case transformations.

Markdown Preview

Markdown preview renders Markdown syntax into formatted HTML, showing how documentation will appear on GitHub, GitLab, or documentation sites.

Common Markdown Syntax

# Heading 1
## Heading 2

**bold** and *italic* text

- Bullet list
- Another item

1. Numbered list
2. Second item

`inline code` and code blocks:

```javascript
const greeting = "Hello";
```

[Link text](https://example.com)

![Image alt](image.png)

| Table | Header |
|-------|--------|
| Cell  | Cell   |

> Blockquote text

---
Horizontal rule

Markdown Preview Use Cases

• README files — Preview before committing
• Documentation — Check formatting for docs sites
• Pull request descriptions — Verify markdown renders correctly
• Issue templates — Test GitHub issue formatting
• Blog posts — Preview content for static site generators
• Technical specs — Format design documents

GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM)

GitHub's Markdown variant adds features like task lists, tables, strikethrough, and syntax highlighting:

// Task lists
- [x] Completed task
- [ ] Pending task

// Strikethrough
~~deleted text~~

// Autolinks
https://example.com automatically becomes a link

// Syntax highlighting
```python
def hello():
    print("Hello!")
```

The Markdown Preview renders with GitHub-style formatting, including syntax highlighting for code blocks.

Text Escape & Unescape

String escaping converts special characters into escape sequences that can be safely embedded in code, JSON, or other formats. Unescaping reverses the process.

Common Escape Sequences

// JSON string escaping
Original: He said "Hello!"
Escaped:  He said \"Hello!\"

// Newlines and tabs
Original: Line 1
          Line 2
Escaped:  Line 1\nLine 2

// Common escape sequences
\n  → newline
\t  → tab
\r  → carriage return
\\ → backslash
\"  → double quote
\'  → single quote

When String Escaping Is Needed

• JSON values — Embedding user input in JSON strings
• JavaScript strings — Quotes and special chars in literals
• SQL queries — Preventing SQL injection (use parameterized queries!)
• XML/HTML content — Special characters in CDATA
• Shell commands — Escaping spaces and special chars
• Regular expressions — Escaping metacharacters

Double Escaping Problem

When strings pass through multiple layers (JSON in logs, API to database), they can become double or triple escaped:

// Original
{"message": "Hello"}

// Single escaped (in a string)
"{\"message\": \"Hello\"}"

// Double escaped (string in a string)
"{\\\"message\\\": \\\"Hello\\\"}"

// Use unescape to reverse each layer

The Text Escape / Unescape tool handles JSON, JavaScript, and XML escape sequences.

Text Tools Quick Reference

Related Tools

Text tools work alongside other utilities:

• JSON Formatter — Format before comparing
• RegEx Tester — Test patterns on text
• Base64 Encoder — Encode text for transport
• Hash Generator — Generate text checksums

All Text Tools in DevToys Pro

These tools are part of the Text collection in DevToys Pro. All text processing happens in your browser — sensitive content never leaves your machine.

Open Text Tools →