A mechanism is provided for automatically comparing content in a plurality of data structures. In one embodiment, this mechanism does not perform a literal, line-by-line comparison of the data structures. Instead, the mechanism first extracts the content from the data structures. The mechanism then substantively compares the extracted content. By extracting the content first and then substantively comparing the content, the mechanism eliminates the problems associated with a literal, line-by-line comparison of the data structures. As a result, the mechanism enables content comparison to be performed automatically, and enables improved comparison results to be achieved.