Compare Microsoft Spreadsheet Files

Look for instances of plagiarism.

• Compare file meta data [default]
  • File creation time stamp
  • File modification time stamp
  • Author of file creation
  • Author of last modification of file
• Cell values [optional]
  • Non-formula strings
  • Cell-by-cell values
• Cell layout [optional]
  • Check locations of filled/unfilled cells

Spreadsheet files must be of type .xlsx

Results are saved to spreadsheet.

Installation and Setup

To install run pip install --user compsheet from the terminal.

To run type

python3 -m compsheet

followed by the various inputs and flags. It is recommended that the user establish the alias compsheet for easy usage. To do this, edit the file .bashrc from the home directory and add the line

alias compsheet='python3 -m compsheet'

to the end. One can do this in their favourite editor or simply open a terminal and type

echo "alias compsheet='python3 -m compsheet'" >> .bashrc

into the prompt and press enter.

Some examples of usage:

# basic usage
python3 -m compsheet    # show help message with no alias
compsheet -h            # show help message with alias set to "compsheet"
compsheet --explain     # print description of table headers
compsheet               # compare all files in current directory

# example compbining various switches
compsheet -v -n 4 -t -o "meta,exact,string" ./dir 
   # [-v]      verbose output: print names of files as they are compared (default: quiet)
   # [-n]      use x processors in multiprocessing                       (default: 1)
   # [-t]      print table summary to stdout                             (default: off)
   # [-o]      do additional optional comparisons                        (default: "meta")
   # [./dir]   path to directory                                         (default: ".")