About this list comparison tool
Comparing two lists by eye is slow and error-prone. Paste them here to see which items are missing from each list and which they have in common: newsletter subscribers who are not customers yet, products in one catalog but not another, or attendees who registered but did not show up. The tool performs the four classic set operations, A minus B, B minus A, the intersection, and the union, keeps each item in the order it first appeared, and draws a Venn diagram of the counts. Every result list has its own copy button.
How to compare two lists
- Paste both lists. Put List A in the first box and List B in the second, one item per line, or press an example.
- Set the matching rules. Choose whether capitals matter, and whether to ignore repeated items, empty lines, and surrounding spaces.
- Press Compare lists. The four result lists and the Venn diagram appear below.
- Copy what you need. Press Copy under any result list, or Copy all results for everything with headings.
Frequently asked questions
What do the four results mean?
Only in List A is A minus B: items in A that are missing from B. Only in List B is the reverse. In both lists is the intersection. In either list is the union: every distinct item from both lists, once.
Are "Apple" and "apple" the same item?
By default, yes: the comparison ignores capitals, which suits emails and names. Tick Case-sensitive comparison to treat them as different items.
Which spelling is shown when capitals differ?
The spelling from List A for items in both lists, and the first spelling seen for the union.
What happens to an item listed twice?
With Ignore repeated items on, each item counts once per list. Turn it off to keep repeats in the results, for example to see how often an item appears in Only in List A.