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I'm using [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:] to create two NSData instances and I want to compare these instances to gauge how different they are. Since they're both from the same website, using a string to find what is different will help me highlight the actual element(s) that has (have) changed. Is it possible to change this data to a string to find the difference?

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Try initWithData:encoding: method of NSString to create string with your data.

Exmp: NSString *str = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:someData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]

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Why don't you use NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:encoding:error:

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@caterpape: Whatever encoding the text is in to begin with. But I'd probably recommend non-lossy ASCII since you are just comparing two strings anyway.
As @william-totland mentioned start with NSASCIIStringEncoding and consider revising if the output does not satisfy you (you work with non-ascii data, e.g. Russian, Chinese, etc).

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