# Object Compare on Natural 9

**URL:** <https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327>\
**Category:** Forum\
**Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Adabas, Natural, Natural-on-Mainframes, Natural-on-Linux, NaturalONE\
**Created:** [March 2, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327 "2021-03-02T03:36:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FerozImtiaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@FerozImtiaz](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/FerozImtiaz)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327/1 "2021-03-02T03:36:41Z")

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Installed Beyond Compare and activated it on Natural 9. When initiating (click on Start Object Compare) I get an Error - Left file name not set. Write Natural Object to the left file, using its context menu. How do you overcome this?

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**Author:** ![Ralph\_Zbrog](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/ralph_zbrog/32/78_2.png) [@Ralph\_Zbrog](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Ralph_Zbrog)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327/2 "2021-03-02T15:27:56Z")

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When _Start Object Compare_ invokes the selected utility (in your case, Beyond Compare), it presumes that you have already selected the objects to be compared. You do that via context menus. Right-click an object name from a module list or tree, then click Object Compare → Write Left File. Right-click a second object name, then click Object Compare → Write Right File. The compare utility will compare _left_ and _right_ files.

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**Author:** ![FerozImtiaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@FerozImtiaz](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/FerozImtiaz)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327/3 "2021-03-02T21:30:54Z")

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Thank you Ralph. Progressed and ended up with this error 'External compare tool not found. Return code 1. Checked and it is there and Object Compare is activated under plug-in-manager.

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**Author:** ![Ralph\_Zbrog](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/ralph_zbrog/32/78_2.png) [@Ralph\_Zbrog](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Ralph_Zbrog)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327/4 "2021-03-02T21:57:07Z")

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The Natural Plug-in needs to know that you’re using Beyond and its location.

Tools → Options… → Object Compare tab

(I use AsciiDiff because it is Natural-aware.)

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/2X/0/0478b04ab9f109188c260fbd0e3ab282be0a6c88.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FerozImtiaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@FerozImtiaz](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/FerozImtiaz)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:18pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327/5 "2021-03-03T16:18:07Z")

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Hi Raplh,

It was done but failing to have .exe created the error.

I had C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare  
now it is C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare.exe  
and it worked.

Issue resolved now

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 11:37am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/object-compare-on-natural-9/239327/6 "2024-02-18T11:37:27Z")

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