How to compare multiple files and find similarities?

March 10, 2022

I am dealing with cheaters on a programming exam and would like to cross-compare all answers from all candidates. I’ve arranged the files like so: 100.js 101.js 102.js etc.

How can I easily compare all these files with each other and find matches in similarity?

>Solution :

This is the strength of Python

import sys
import difflib
def read_file(filename):
    try:
        with open(filename, 'r') as f:
            return f.readlines()
    except IOError:
        print("ERROR" % filename)
        sys.exit(1)


def compare_file(file1, file2, out_file):
    file1_content = read_file(file1)
    file2_content = read_file(file2)
    d = difflib.HtmlDiff()
    result = d.make_file(file1_content, file2_content)
    with open(out_file, 'w') as f:
        f.writelines(result)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    compare_file('100.js', '101.js', 'result.html')