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@henrik
Created July 14, 2009 08:38
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Recursively diff two Ruby hashes.
# Recursively diff two hashes, showing only the differing values.
# By Henrik Nyh <http://henrik.nyh.se> 2009-07-14 under the MIT license.
#
# Example:
#
# a = {
# "same" => "same",
# "diff" => "a",
# "only a" => "a",
# "nest" => {
# "same" => "same",
# "diff" => "a"
# }
# }
#
# b = {
# "same" => "same",
# "diff" => "b",
# "only b" => "b",
# "nest" => {
# "same" => "same",
# "diff" => "b"
# }
# }
#
# a.deep_diff(b) # =>
#
# {
# "diff" => ["a", "b"],
# "only a" => ["a", nil],
# "only b" => [nil, "b"],
# "nest" => {
# "diff" => ["a", "b"]
# }
# }
#
#
# ActiveSupport's Hash#diff would give this for a.diff(b):
#
# {
# "diff" => "a",
# "only a" => "a",
# "only b" => "b",
# "nest" => {
# "same" => "same",
# "diff" => "a"
# }
# }
#
class Hash
def deep_diff(b)
a = self
(a.keys | b.keys).inject({}) do |diff, k|
if a[k] != b[k]
if a[k].respond_to?(:deep_diff) && b[k].respond_to?(:deep_diff)
diff[k] = a[k].deep_diff(b[k])
else
diff[k] = [a[k], b[k]]
end
end
diff
end
end
end
if __FILE__ == $0
require "test/unit"
class DeepDiffTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
def assert_deep_diff(diff, a, b)
assert_equal(diff, a.deep_diff(b))
end
def test_no_difference
assert_deep_diff(
{},
{"one" => 1, "two" => 2},
{"two" => 2, "one" => 1}
)
end
def test_fully_different
assert_deep_diff(
{"one" => [1, nil], "two" => [nil, 2]},
{"one" => 1},
{"two" => 2}
)
end
def test_simple_difference
assert_deep_diff(
{"one" => [1, "1"]},
{"one" => 1},
{"one" => "1"}
)
end
def test_complex_difference
assert_deep_diff(
{
"diff" => ["a", "b"],
"only a" => ["a", nil],
"only b" => [nil, "b"],
"nested" => {
"y" => {
"diff" => ["a", "b"]
}
}
},
{
"one" => "1",
"diff" => "a",
"only a" => "a",
"nested" => {
"x" => "x",
"y" => {
"a" => "a",
"diff" => "a"
}
}
},
{
"one" => "1",
"diff" => "b",
"only b" => "b",
"nested" => {
"x" => "x",
"y" => {
"a" => "a",
"diff" => "b"
}
}
}
)
end
def test_default_value
assert_deep_diff(
{"one" => [1, "default"]},
{"one" => 1},
Hash.new("default")
)
end
end
end
@stephanwehner
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Nice! I've been wanting the same. I was going to make it a new class, and collect the differences found, maybe even in a new hash? Also cover arrays.

@josh-hunter-software
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josh-hunter-software commented Aug 11, 2017

Thanks for this. I added a bit to deal with arrays of hashes if anyone needs it.

def deep_diff(b, exceptions = [])
    a = self
    (a.keys | b.keys).inject({}) do |diff, k|
      if a[k] != b[k] && !exceptions.any? { |key| k.include?(key) }
        if a[k].respond_to?(:deep_diff) && b[k].respond_to?(:deep_diff)
          diff[k] = a[k].deep_diff(b[k])
        else
          if a[k].present? && b[k].present?
            if a[k].instance_of?(Array) && a[k].first.instance_of?(Hash)
              a[k].each_with_index do |hash, index|
                if (b[k][index]).present?
                  diff[k] = hash.deep_diff(b[k][index])
                else
                  diff[k] = [a[k], b[k]]
                end
              end
            else
              diff[k] = [a[k], b[k]]
            end
          else
            diff[k] = [a[k], b[k]]
          end
        end
      end
      diff.delete_blank
    end
  end
  
  def delete_blank
    delete_if{|k, v| v.empty? or v.instance_of?(Hash) && v.delete_blank.empty?}
  end

@Dascr32
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Dascr32 commented Nov 23, 2017

Changed a little to work without modifying the Hash class

def deep_diff(a, b)
  (a.keys | b.keys).each_with_object({}) do |k, diff|
    if a[k] != b[k]
      if a[k].is_a?(Hash) && b[k].is_a?(Hash)
        diff[k] = deep_diff(a[k], b[k])
      else
        diff[k] = [a[k], b[k]]
      end
    end
    diff
  end
end

@passalini
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@Dascr32 tks!! =D

@luxious
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luxious commented Mar 3, 2021

Nice

@gw7nvw
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gw7nvw commented Aug 24, 2021

@kalami - your array diff doesn't work if there are multiple differences in different indexes of the same array - as it (over)writes the differences to the same diff[k]. Modified to diff[k+index.to_s]=... as a hack to get that working ... probably neater ways of solving it though ...

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