Using Vimdiff to diff two things that are not local documents

Question

Every now and then I want to diff two random things (like a source-code vs some code I find online).

I could obviously create two files locally and diff them, - but I was wondering if there was a way to open Vimdiff with two empty documents (not to be saved anywhere); where I could copy/paste the text in to diff them quickly and efficiently.

If I just write vimdiff then I just get an empty vim-editor.

score 25 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 29 '20 at 08:51

25

You can diff two unwritten buffers:

Open vim (or open a new tab in you current vim instance)
Put your current code in one buffer or open an existing file (:e ./mySourceFile)
Split your screen with :sp or ctrl+wv
Open a new buffer (:e)
Put the new code you want to diff in this new buffer
And make a diff between the two buffers with :windo diffthis
If you update one of the buffers update the diff with :diffupdate
When you're done use :diffoff!

See

edited Sep 29 '20 at 08:51

Rohan Ghige

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answered Apr 08 '18 at 19:11

statox

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+1 this is also useful to vimdiff two already opened copies of a file – CervEd Jan 08 '22 at 12:25
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if you use the vimdiff command to open vim you can skip the :windo – rodvlopes Feb 16 '22 at 13:35

Using Vimdiff to diff two things that are not local documents

1 Answers1