Diff multidimensional dictionaries in python

Question

I have two dictionaries

a = {'home': {'name': 'Team1', 'score': 0}, 'away': {'name': 'Team2', 'score': 0}}
b = {'home': {'name': 'Team1', 'score': 2}, 'away': {'name': 'Team2', 'score': 0}}

The keys never change but I want to get that ['home']['score'] has changed

Any easy way to do this?

Answer 1

As a knee-jerk initial response:

a = {'home': {'name': 'Team1', 'score': 0}, 'away': {'name': 'Team2', 'score': 0}}
b = {'home': {'name': 'Team1', 'score': 2}, 'away': {'name': 'Team2', 'score': 0}}

def valchange(d1, d2, parent=''):
    changes=[]
    for k in d1.keys():
        if type(d1[k])==type({}):
            changes.extend(valchange(d1[k], d2[k], k))
        else:
            if d1[k]!=d2[k]:
                if parent=='':
                    changes.append(k + ' has changed ')
                else:
                    changes.append(parent + '.' + k + ' has changed')
    return changes

print valchange(a,b)

>>>
['home.score has changed']    

Answer 2

You can use my package that is for python: https://github.com/seperman/deepdiff

It deals with more than just recursive dictionary differences:

Installation

Install from PyPi:

pip install deepdiff

If you are Python3 you need to also install:

pip install future six

Example usage

>>> from deepdiff import DeepDiff
>>> from pprint import pprint
>>> from __future__ import print_function

Same object returns empty

>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3}
>>> t2 = t1
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> print (ddiff.changes)
    {}

Type of an item has changed

>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:"2", 3:3}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> print (ddiff.changes)
    {'type_changes': ["root[2]: 2=<type 'int'> vs. 2=<type 'str'>"]}

Value of an item has changed

>>> t1 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:4, 3:3}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> print (ddiff.changes)
    {'values_changed': ['root[2]: 2 ====>> 4']}

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.changes)
    {'dic_item_added': ['root[5, 6]'],
     'dic_item_removed': ['root[4]'],
     'values_changed': ['root[2]: 2 ====>> 4']}

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.changes, indent = 2)
    { 'values_changed': [ 'root[2]: 2 ====>> 4',
                          "root[4]['b']:\n--- \n+++ \n@@ -1 +1 @@\n-world\n+world!"]}
>>>
>>> print (ddiff.changes['values_changed'][1])
    root[4]['b']:
    --- 
    +++ 
    @@ -1 +1 @@
    -world
    +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.changes, indent = 2)
    { 'values_changed': [ "root[4]['b']:\n--- \n+++ \n@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@\n-world!\n-Goodbye!\n+world\n 1\n 2\n End"]}
>>>
>>> print (ddiff.changes['values_changed'][0])
    root[4]['b']:
    --- 
    +++ 
    @@ -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.changes, indent = 2)
    { 'type_changes': [ "root[4]['b']: [1, 2, 3]=<type 'list'> vs. world\n\n\nEnd=<type 'str'>"]}

List difference

>>> 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, 2]}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff.changes, indent = 2)
    { 'list_removed': ["root[4]['b']: [3]"]}

List difference 2: Note that it DOES NOT take order into account

>>> # Note that it DOES NOT take order into account
... 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]}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff.changes, indent = 2)
    { }

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.changes, indent = 2)
    { 'dic_item_removed': ["root[4]['b'][2][2]"],
      'values_changed': ["root[4]['b'][2][1]: 1 ====>> 3"]}

Answer 3

Here is a very simple solution. It returns a list of lists containing all the first and second level dictionary keys for the elements that differ. Hope that is what you wanted :)

a = {'home':{'name': 'Team1', 'score': 0}, 'away':{'name': 'Team2', 'score': 0}}
b = {'home':{'name': 'Team1', 'score': 2}, 'away':{'name': 'Team2', 'score': 0}}

diffs = []
for i in a:
    for j in a[i]:
        if a[i][j] != b[i][j]:
            diffs += [i, j]

print diffs

Cheers!

Answer 4

I'm not sure if that's what you need but i've found a library which produces the diff between python data structures. It's called datadiff and it fives you all the different enries between two dictionaries. i'm not sure nether if it gives you the difference in "store", maybe it will show a different value for the whole "home" entry. You have to try it.