Compare Lesson 4 – Compare by Attribute

In this lesson, we will perform a comparison of two modules, matching their objects using attributes. After the compare we will analyze the results and see how the results are similar to the previous lessons.
To begin, navigate to the project for this lesson. Then open the Module in that project and start the Compare Modules script as shown in Lesson 1.
The module for this lesson was created from the same archive file as the module in Lesson 1, so the objects have the same Absolute Numbers. You can imagine other attributes might be used to match modules for comparison. For example, if you receive an archive file from a supplier that contains unique identifiers per objects, you could use that attribute to compare the module to a previous version.

Choose the Compare by Attribute radio button and then press the Select Target button.
Choose the Lesson 1 module.
Then choose the current state of the module (which has had changes made since archival). Then press the OK button.
After the target is chosen you see that the Match by Common Attribute Options are activated. Here you would choose the source and target attributes to be used to match the objects between modules. The default is Absolute Number, and we will use this attribute for both source and target. So nothing needs to be changed.

Now press the Add Comparison Column button to create the results column, and then press the Close button.
The comparison results column should look familiar. It shows how the older objects, that of the target (the Lesson 1 current module), would be changed to match the right-hand side. Look through the results and should recognize the results from previous lessons.