ABOUT & METHOD
A clearer check before the next update.
Catalog Check is an independent tool for people who need to review changing product exports.
The tool focuses on one task: compare two delimited text exports using the identifiers you choose, and make ambiguous matches visible. It is not affiliated with a commerce platform and does not connect to or update your store.
Catalog Check is operated by Ella.
How matching works
The selected key columns form a tuple of text values. Leading zeros are retained. Each component must be non-empty and the full tuple must be unique in each file. Duplicate or ambiguous keys pause the comparison. Record order and column order do not determine a match.
Optional rules can trim key-edge whitespace or ignore key case. Collisions introduced by those rules also pause the comparison. Selected non-key fields are compared as exact text. Unselected fields and columns found in only one export are not included in the change conclusion.
Scope and limits
Current limits per file are 2 MiB of UTF-8 text, 20,000 data records, 100 columns and 500,000 cells. Files need headers, unique column names and consistent field counts. No fuzzy identity matching, XLSX parsing, automatic column mapping or numeric tolerances are included.
Comma, semicolon, tab and pipe separators are supported. Automatic detection is a convenience; choose a separator explicitly when needed. Headers match exactly, including case and spaces. Unsupported encodings or malformed records stop processing rather than silently skipping data.
How field notes are made
These guides were drafted with AI assistance and edited alongside the implementation. They use original synthetic examples rather than client data. The example outcomes are checked against automated tests of the comparison logic. This is not a claim of independent expert certification or testing on every spreadsheet application.
Where a guide depends on software behavior or a format specification, it links to a primary reference. Report corrections through the contact route, with the smallest fictional example that reproduces the issue.
Independent tool and responsible use
Catalog Check is an independent tool, with no affiliation to a commerce platform. It provides a review of the files you supply, not a guarantee that an export is complete or that a business update is correct. Keep backups and check the source records before changing a live catalog.
Read Privacy & data handling for local processing and download details, or contact us about an issue.