Recursive diff of two dictionaries (keys and values)?

Consider using hasattr(obj, '__iter__') as you recurse through the object. If an object implements the __iter__ method you know you can iterate over it.

Just a thought: You could try an object-oriented approach where you derive your own dictionary class that keeps track of any changes made to it (and reports them). Seems like this might have many advantages over trying to compare two dicts…one is noted at the end.

To show how that might be done, here’s a reasonably complete and minimally tested sample implementation which should work with both Python 2 and 3:

import sys

_NUL = object()  # unique object

if sys.version_info[0] > 2:
    def iterkeys(d, **kw):
        return iter(d.keys(**kw))
else:
    def iterkeys(d, **kw):
        return d.iterkeys(**kw)


class TrackingDict(dict):
    """ Dict subclass which tracks all changes in a _changelist attribute. """
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(TrackingDict, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.clear_changelist()
        for key in sorted(iterkeys(self)):
            self._changelist.append(AddKey(key, self[key]))

    def clear_changelist(self):  # additional public method
        self._changelist = []

    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        modtype = ChangeKey if key in self else AddKey
        super(TrackingDict, self).__setitem__(key, value)
        self._changelist.append(modtype(key, self[key]))

    def __delitem__(self, key):
        super(TrackingDict, self).__delitem__(key)
        self._changelist.append(RemoveKey(key))

    def clear(self):
        deletedkeys = self.keys()
        super(TrackingDict, self).clear()
        for key in sorted(deletedkeys):
            self._changelist.append(RemoveKey(key))

    def update(self, other=_NUL):
        if other is not _NUL:
            otherdict = dict(other)  # convert to dict if necessary
            changedkeys = set(k for k in otherdict if k in self)
            super(TrackingDict, self).update(other)
            for key in sorted(iterkeys(otherdict)):
                if key in changedkeys:
                    self._changelist.append(ChangeKey(key, otherdict[key]))
                else:
                    self._changelist.append(AddKey(key, otherdict[key]))

    def setdefault(self, key, default=None):
        if key not in self:
            self[key] = default  # will append an AddKey to _changelist
        return self[key]

    def pop(self, key, default=_NUL):
        if key in self:
            ret = self[key]  # save value
            self.__delitem__(key)
            return ret
        elif default is not _NUL:  # default specified
            return default
        else:  # not there & no default
            self[key]  # allow KeyError to be raised

    def popitem(self):
        key, value = super(TrackingDict, self).popitem()
        self._changelist.append(RemoveKey(key))
        return key, value

# change-tracking record classes

class DictMutator(object):
    def __init__(self, key, value=_NUL):
        self.key = key
        self.value = value
    def __repr__(self):
        return '%s(%r%s)' % (self.__class__.__name__, self.key,
                             '' if self.value is _NUL else ': '+repr(self.value))

class AddKey(DictMutator): pass
class ChangeKey(DictMutator): pass
class RemoveKey(DictMutator): pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import traceback
    import sys

    td = TrackingDict({'one': 1, 'two': 2})
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td['three'] = 3
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td['two'] = -2
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.clear()
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.clear_changelist()

    td['newkey'] = 42
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.setdefault('another') # default None value
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.setdefault('one more', 43)
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.update(zip(('another', 'one', 'two'), (17, 1, 2)))
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.pop('newkey')
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    try:
        td.pop("won't find")
    except KeyError:
        print("KeyError as expected:")
        traceback.print_exc(file=sys.stdout)
    print('...and no change to _changelist:')
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

    td.clear_changelist()
    while td:
        td.popitem()
    print('changelist: {}'.format(td._changelist))

Note that unlike a simple comparison of the before and after state of a dictionary, this class will tell you about keys which were added and then deleted—in other words, it keeps a complete history until its _changelist is cleared.

Output:

changelist: [AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2)]
changelist: [AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2), AddKey('three': 3)]
changelist: [AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2), AddKey('three': 3), ChangeKey('two': -2)]
changelist: [AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2), AddKey('three': 3), ChangeKey('two': -2), RemoveKey('one'), RemoveKey('three'), RemoveKey('two')]
changelist: [AddKey('newkey': 42)]
changelist: [AddKey('newkey': 42), AddKey('another': None)]
changelist: [AddKey('newkey': 42), AddKey('another': None), AddKey('one more': 43)]
changelist: [AddKey('newkey': 42), AddKey('another': None), AddKey('one more': 43), ChangeKey('another': 17), AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2)]
changelist: [AddKey('newkey': 42), AddKey('another': None), AddKey('one more': 43), ChangeKey('another': 17), AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2), RemoveKey('newkey')]
KeyError as expected:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "trackingdict.py", line 122, in <module>
    td.pop("won't find")
  File "trackingdict.py", line 67, in pop
    self[key]  # allow KeyError to be raised
KeyError: "won't find"
...and no change to _changelist:
changelist: [AddKey('newkey': 42), AddKey('another': None), AddKey('one more': 43), ChangeKey('another': 17), AddKey('one': 1), AddKey('two': 2), RemoveKey('newkey')]
changelist: [RemoveKey('one'), RemoveKey('two'), RemoveKey('another'), RemoveKey('one more')]

Your function should begin by checking the type of its arguments, write the function so that it can handle lists, dictionaries, ints, and strings. That way you don’t have to duplicate anything, you just call recursively.

Psuedocode:

def compare(d1, d2):
     if d1 and d2 are dicts
            compare the keys, pass values to compare
     if d1 and d2 are lists
            compare the lists, pass values to compare
     if d1 and d2 are strings/ints
            compare them

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!n1n2nEnd"}}
>>> t2 = {1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:{"a":"hello", "b":"worldn1n2nEnd"}}
>>> 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'
                                                '+worldn'
                                                ' 1n'
                                                ' 2n'
                                                ' End',
                                        'newvalue': 'worldn1n2nEnd',
                                        'oldvalue': 'world!n'
                                                    'Goodbye!n'
                                                    '1n'
                                                    '2n'
                                                    '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":"worldnnnEnd"}}
>>> ddiff = DeepDiff(t1, t2)
>>> pprint (ddiff, indent = 2)
{ 'type_changes': { "root[4]['b']": { 'newtype': <class 'str'>,
                                      'newvalue': 'worldnnnEnd',
                                      '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}}}

It is fun to do something yourselves to practice and learn, yet I find that for non-trivial tasks, the ready and maintained packages often work better.

Consider convert to json and use some decent “semantic” json comparator say https://www.npmjs.com/package/compare-json or online http://jsondiff.com. Would need stringify number key.

If you can try translate jsondiff to python if you really need.

Conversion from JavaScript to Python code?

As suggested by Serge I found this solution helpful to get a quick boolean return on whether two dictionaries match “all the way down”:

import json

def match(d1, d2):
    return json.dumps(d1, sort_keys=True) == json.dumps(d2, sort_keys=True)

Here’s an implementation inspired by Winston Ewert

def recursive_compare(d1, d2, level='root'):
    if isinstance(d1, dict) and isinstance(d2, dict):
        if d1.keys() != d2.keys():
            s1 = set(d1.keys())
            s2 = set(d2.keys())
            print('{:<20} + {} - {}'.format(level, s1-s2, s2-s1))
            common_keys = s1 & s2
        else:
            common_keys = set(d1.keys())

        for k in common_keys:
            recursive_compare(d1[k], d2[k], level='{}.{}'.format(level, k))

    elif isinstance(d1, list) and isinstance(d2, list):
        if len(d1) != len(d2):
            print('{:<20} len1={}; len2={}'.format(level, len(d1), len(d2)))
        common_len = min(len(d1), len(d2))

        for i in range(common_len):
            recursive_compare(d1[i], d2[i], level='{}[{}]'.format(level, i))

    else:
        if d1 != d2:
            print('{:<20} {} != {}'.format(level, d1, d2))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    d1={'a':[0,2,3,8], 'b':0, 'd':{'da':7, 'db':[99,88]}}
    d2={'a':[0,2,4], 'c':0, 'd':{'da':3, 'db':7}}

    recursive_compare(d1, d2)

will return:

root                 + {'b'} - {'c'}
root.a               len1=4; len2=3
root.a[2]            3 != 4
root.d.db            [99, 88] != 7
root.d.da            7 != 3

You can try the following simple implementation

def recursive_compare(obj1, obj2):
""" Compare python objects recursively, support type:
"int, float, long, basestring, set, datetime, date, dict, Sequence"

Example:
>>> recursive_compare([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3])
>>> True
>>> recursive_compare([1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 4])
>>> False
>>> recursive_compare({'a': 1}, {'a': 2})
>>> False
"""

def _diff(obj1, obj2):
    # exclude type basestring for backward-compatible python2:
    # <str, unicode>
    if type(obj1) != type(obj2) and not isinstance(obj1, basestring):
        return False

    elif isinstance(obj1,
                    (int, float, long, basestring, set, datetime, date)):
        if obj1 != obj2:
            return False

    elif isinstance(obj1, dict):
        keys = obj1.viewkeys() & obj2.viewkeys()
        if obj1 and len(keys) == 0 
            or keys.difference(set(obj1.keys())) 
                or keys.difference(set(obj2.keys())):
            return False

        for k in keys:
            if _diff(obj1[k], obj2[k]) is False:
                return False

    elif isinstance(obj1, collections.Sequence):
        # require sorted sequence object
        if len(obj1) != len(obj2):
            return False

        for i in range(len(obj1)):
            if _diff(obj1[i], obj2[i]) is False:
                return False

    else:
        raise TypeError('do not support type {} to compare'.format(
            type(obj1)))

return False if _diff(obj1, obj2) is False else True

Here’s a sample, which can be easily extended to handle other python data types too:

def deep_compare(a, b) -> bool:
    if type(a) is not type(b): return False

    if type(a) is dict:
        if not deep_compare(list(a.keys()), list(b.keys())): return False
        if not deep_compare(list(a.values()), list(b.values())): return False
    elif isinstance(a, (list, tuple, set)):
        for a_i, b_i in zip(a, b):
            if not deep_compare(a_i, b_i): return False
    else:  # scalar, bool, str
        if a != b: return False

    return True