In case you want the difference recursively, I have written a package for python:https://github.com/seperman/deepdiff
Installation
Install from PyPi:
pip install deepdiff
Example usage
Importing
>>> from deepdiff import DeepDiff
>>> from pprint import pprint
>>> from __future__ import print_function # In case running on Python 2
Same object returns empty
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3}
>>> t2 = t1
>>> print(DeepDiff(t1, t2))
{}
Type of an item has changed
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:"2", 3:3}
>>> pprint(DeepDiff(t1, t2), indent=2)
{ 'type_changes': { 'root[2]': { 'newtype': <class 'str'>,
'newvalue': '2',
'oldtype': <class 'int'>,
'oldvalue': 2}}}
Value of an item has changed
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:4, 3:3}
>>> pprint(DeepDiff(t1, t2), indent=2)
{'values_changed': {'root[2]': {'newvalue': 4, 'oldvalue': 2}}}
Item added and/or removed
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:4}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:4, 3:3, 5:5, 6:6}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff)
{'dic_item_added': ['root[5]', 'root[6]'],
'dic_item_removed': ['root[4]'],
'values_changed': {'root[2]': {'newvalue': 4, 'oldvalue': 2}}}
String difference
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":"world"}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:4, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":"world!"}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{ 'values_changed': { 'root[2]': {'newvalue': 4, 'oldvalue': 2},
"root[4]['b']": { 'newvalue': 'world!',
'oldvalue': 'world'}}}
String difference 2
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":"world!\nGoodbye!\n1\n2\nEnd"}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":"world\n1\n2\nEnd"}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{ 'values_changed': { "root[4]['b']": { 'diff': '--- \n'
'+++ \n'
'@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@\n'
'-world!\n'
'-Goodbye!\n'
'+world\n'
' 1\n'
' 2\n'
' End',
'newvalue': 'world\n1\n2\nEnd',
'oldvalue': 'world!\n'
'Goodbye!\n'
'1\n'
'2\n'
'End'}}}
>>>
>>> print (ddiff['values_changed']["root[4]['b']"]["diff"])
---
+++
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-world!
-Goodbye!
+world
1
2
End
Type change
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2, 3]}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":"world\n\n\nEnd"}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{ 'type_changes': { "root[4]['b']": { 'newtype': <class 'str'>,
'newvalue': 'world\n\n\nEnd',
'oldtype': <class 'list'>,
'oldvalue': [1, 2, 3]}}}
List difference
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2, 3, 4]}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2]}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{'iterable_item_removed': {"root[4]['b'][2]": 3, "root[4]['b'][3]": 4}}
List difference 2:
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2, 3]}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 3, 2, 3]}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{ 'iterable_item_added': {"root[4]['b'][3]": 3},
'values_changed': { "root[4]['b'][1]": {'newvalue': 3, 'oldvalue': 2},
"root[4]['b'][2]": {'newvalue': 2, 'oldvalue': 3}}}
List difference ignoring order or duplicates: (with the same dictionaries as above)
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2, 3]}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 3, 2, 3]}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2, ignore_order=True)
>>> print (ddiff)
{}
List that contains dictionary:
>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2, {1:1, 2:2}]}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":[1, 2, {1:3}]}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{ 'dic_item_removed': ["root[4]['b'][2][2]"],
'values_changed': {"root[4]['b'][2][1]": {'newvalue': 3, 'oldvalue': 1}}}
Sets:
>>> t1 = {1, 2, 8}
>>> t2 = {1, 2, 3, 5}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (DeepDiff(t1, t2))
{'set_item_added': ['root[3]', 'root[5]'], 'set_item_removed': ['root[8]']}
Named Tuples:
>>> from collections import namedtuple
>>> Point = namedtuple('Point', ['x', 'y'])
>>> t1 = Point(x=11, y=22)
>>> t2 = Point(x=11, y=23)
>>> pprint (DeepDiff(t1, t2))
{'values_changed': {'root.y': {'newvalue': 23, 'oldvalue': 22}}}
Custom objects:
>>> class ClassA(object):
... a = 1
... def __init__(self, b):
... self.b = b
...
>>> t1 = ClassA(1)
>>> t2 = ClassA(2)
>>>
>>> pprint(DeepDiff(t1, t2))
{'values_changed': {'root.b': {'newvalue': 2, 'oldvalue': 1}}}
Object attribute added:
>>> t2.c = "new attribute"
>>> pprint(DeepDiff(t1, t2))
{'attribute_added': ['root.c'],
'values_changed': {'root.b': {'newvalue': 2, 'oldvalue': 1}}}
def update(self, new_dict): self.__init__(new_dict, self.current_dict)
or the like so you can do a rolling comparison – Nick T Oct 21 '13 at 20:02DictDiffer
class is a stateless class and could be a function. Thechanged
andunchanged
values could be computed in the same loop. This two functions could return alist
instead of aset
which is certainly less expensive. For deep comparison, you can take a look at the Unit testing framework: docs.python.org/2/library/unittest.html, just follow theassertDictEqual
method in the source code. – Laurent LAPORTE Nov 20 '13 at 6:52set(dictb)
is probably better thanset(dictb.keys())
. – mgilson May 19 '14 at 15:13