Comparison criteria
Use the Configure Comparison Criteria dialog to customize the result of your comparison.


- Data sources:
- In the Eclipse plug-in, a data source is the name
given to a set of results displayed in a tab. A data source can be one of the following:
- A tab you have opened containing a set of resources, parameters, or the results return from an IMS™ command. See Exploring your environment.
- A tab you have saved. See Saving the display.
The comparator can compare data within a single data source, or between two or more data sources. When you click the Compare button, Data Source 1 is automatically assigned to the open tab.
Comparing with a single data source allows you to compare between the rows of a result set. Highlighting is applied over table cells where the value between rows has changed. For an example of a single data source comparison, see Using the comparator with a single data source.
Comparing with multiple data sources allows you to compare across different open tabs and saved displays. To add additional data sources to your comparison, use the following procedure:- Click Add/Remove Data Sources.
- Select your data sources. The list is derived from the results tabs you currently have open in the Eclipse plug-in and any saved displays you have.
- Click OK.
For examples using multiple data sources, see Common uses of the Eclipse plug-in comparator.
- Table options:
- Label
- Items in the Label column will appear as column headings in your comparison output. By default they are derived from the column names of Data Source 1, but can be renamed if desired.
- Key Sequence
- The Key Sequence column controls your comparison output in two important ways:
- It allows you to bind related items together to form a comparison key.
- It allows you to sort the output by defining a sequence.
To sort the output by a particular column, place a 1 in the Key Sequence column next to the label. For example, enter 1 next to the RepTimeUpdate label in Figure 1 to sort the output chronologically by update time of the definitions repository.
To sort and group related items together, number the items sequentially. For example, resources are uniquely identified by their Name and ResourceType. To bind these items together, enter 1 and 2 next to their respective labels, as shown in Figure 1.
When a new comparison is first created, the Eclipse plug-in suggests default values based on the content of Data Source 1. You can override these values as desired.
- Ignore
- By default, the comparator places a highlight over two cells in a column that have different values. Select the check box in the Ignore column to disable highlighting in that column.
- Hide
- Select the check box in the Hide column to remove that column from the output.
- Data Source n
- A list of column headings in the selected data source. Add additional
data sources by clicking the Add/Remove Data Sources button.Advanced: Use the drop-down lists to perform the following tasks:
- Change the column ordering.
- Change the mapping between columns in your data sources. Use this technique if two data sources contain the same data, but use different naming conventions for column headings.
- Key matching options:
- These options allow you to define the behaviour of the comparator
when it searches your data sources for the specified Key
Sequence.
- Show Matched Keys
- Displays items where the key sequence is found in all data sources. For example, if Show Matched Keys was selected in Figure 1, the comparison result would show a list of resources that are present in both IMS systems.
- Show Unmatched Keys
- Displays items where the key sequence is not found in all data sources. For example, the selections in Figure 1 will list all resources, identified as the pairing of Name and ResourceType, that are present in one IMS system but not the other.
- Show All
- Displays the combination of selecting both Show Matched Keys and Show Unmatched Keys.