[Issue]: Output file Diff check not catching changes

[ClaireValdivia]

Why is this issue important?

This quarter when we did a cpf diff check on output files, it did not catch any differences when there were a number of changes. The changes were exclusively related to spacing and indentation, but we still expected the diff check to catch these items.

Current State

See the CPF Comparison doc to see the changes we expected the diff check to catch. (you will need to scroll to the bottom of each tab for the most recent comparison, and a flag of "FALSE" when the fields don't match. We expect all times it shows as "FALSE" to be represented in the dif check but it did not catch anything.

Expected State

We expect all discrepancies between files (including spaces and indentations) to be caught in the diff check.

To test this:

1. Go to this google drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12hXC1baoHgFLUCZHFSfntbxhLOw0VBIC
2. Download the 2024-10-01 and the 2024-07-01 and zip the contents of both these folders.
3. Run both folders through the comparison script. https://github.com/usdigitalresponse/cpf-reporter/blob/main/python/src/lib/output_template_comparator.py#L227
   a. poetry run python -m src.lib.output_template_comparator 2024_10_01.zip 2024_07_01.zip
4. The results should show many changes across various fields.

Implementation Plan

The following functions need to be added...

Relevant Code Snippets

No response

[boxydog]

I cannot reproduce the issue with the info given. Something is different. Help?

Two examples of differences from the "CPF Comparison doc" in the "1a compare" sheet:

• July has "Field ID " with a space, October has "Field ID" no space
• July has "The EIN number of this subrecipient (Number, max Characters 9)" with two spaces, October has "The EIN number of this subrecipient (Number, max Characters 9)" with one space

I downloaded the 2024-07-01 and 2024-10-01 directories from the google drive folder. Google conveniently zips them. I run it, no differences.

Then I unzipped and opened "CPF1ABroadbandInfrastructureTemplate (3).xlsx" (I assume this is "1a") with LibreOffice.

• Both 2024-07-01 and 2024-10-01 have "Field ID " with a space
• Both 2024-07-01 and 2024-10-01 have "The EIN number of this subrecipient (Number, max Characters 9)" with two spaces

So I wonder if the wrong thing was uploaded to 2024-10-01? They both look like 2024-07-01.

[ClaireValdivia]

@boxydog thanks so much for reviewing this and hmmm that's really odd. perhaps I added the wrong files to the folder.... I've just downloaded again from what our partners sent and added the current files to the folder here - does the dif check catch the differences now?
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1Jr5YghUHnZW1SQ_vSRHALjYfO7aw6SWe

[boxydog]

It does not. However, again, when I download the files from the folder you just provided and open 1A, the first column is "Field ID " with a space. Is that not your experience as well?

You've labeled two things as October: one without a space (from your comparison sheet), and one with a space (from two folders now). Which one is right?

[boxydog]

A related question: can we fetch the October documents ourselves? Maybe someone sent you the wrong files. I did a quick web search, and it wasn't obvious to me where to get them.