Side-by-Side Diff Comparison in Python

diff_side_by_side.py

# Code licensed LGPLv3 by Jérémie Lumbroso <lumbroso@cs.princeton.edu>

import difflib
import itertools
import textwrap
import typing


def side_by_side(
    left: typing.List[str],
    right: typing.List[str],
    width: int = 78,
    as_string: bool = False,
    separator: typing.Optional[str] = " | ",
    left_title: typing.Optional[str] = None,
    right_title: typing.Optional[str] = None,
) -> typing.Union[str, typing.List[str]]:
    """Returns either the list of lines, or string of lines, that results from
    merging the two lists side-by-side.

    :param left: Lines of text to place on the left side
    :type left: typing.List[str]
    :param right: Lines of text to place on the right side
    :type right: typing.List[str]

    :param width: Character width of the overall output, defaults to 78
    :type width: int, optional
    :param as_string: Whether to return a string (as opposed to a list of strings), defaults to False
    :type as_string: bool, optional
    :param separator: String separating the left and right side, defaults to " | "
    :type separator: typing.Optional[str], optional
    :param left_title: Title to place on the left side, defaults to None
    :type left_title: typing.Optional[str], optional
    :param right_title: Title to place on the right side, defaults to None
    :type right_title: typing.Optional[str], optional

    :return: Lines or text of the merged side-by-side output.
    :rtype: typing.Union[str, typing.List[str]]
    """

    DEFAULT_SEPARATOR = " | "
    separator = separator or DEFAULT_SEPARATOR

    mid_width = (width - len(separator) - (1 - width % 2)) // 2

    tw = textwrap.TextWrapper(
        width=mid_width,
        break_long_words=False,
        replace_whitespace=False
    )

    def reflow(lines):
        wrapped_lines = list(map(tw.wrap, lines))
        wrapped_lines_with_linebreaks = [
            [""] if len(wls) == 0 else wls
            for wls in wrapped_lines
        ]
        return list(itertools.chain.from_iterable(wrapped_lines_with_linebreaks))

    left = reflow(left)
    right = reflow(right)

    zip_pairs = itertools.zip_longest(left, right)
    if left_title is not None or right_title is not None:
        left_title = left_title or ""
        right_title = right_title or ""
        zip_pairs = [
            (left_title, right_title),
            (mid_width * "-", mid_width * "-")
        ] + list(zip_pairs)

    lines = []
    for l, r in zip_pairs:
        l = l or ""
        r = r or ""
        line = "{}{}{}{}".format(
            l,
            (" " * max(0, mid_width - len(l))),
            separator,
            r
        )
        lines.append(line)

    if as_string:
        return "\n".join(lines)

    return lines


def better_diff(
    left: typing.List[str],
    right: typing.List[str],
    width: int = 78,
    as_string: bool = False,
    separator: typing.Optional[str] = None,
    left_title: typing.Optional[str] = None,
    right_title: typing.Optional[str] = None,
) -> typing.Union[str, typing.List[str]]:
    """Returns a side-by-side comparison of the two provided inputs, showing
    common lines between both inputs, and the lines that are unique to each.

    :param left: Lines of text to place on the left side
    :type left: typing.List[str]
    :param right: Lines of text to place on the right side
    :type right: typing.List[str]

    :param width: Character width of the overall output, defaults to 78
    :type width: int, optional
    :param as_string: Whether to return a string (as opposed to a list of strings), defaults to False
    :type as_string: bool, optional
    :param separator: String separating the left and right side, defaults to " | "
    :type separator: typing.Optional[str], optional
    :param left_title: Title to place on the left side, defaults to None
    :type left_title: typing.Optional[str], optional
    :param right_title: Title to place on the right side, defaults to None
    :type right_title: typing.Optional[str], optional

    :return: Lines or text of the merged side-by-side diff comparison output.
    :rtype: typing.Union[str, typing.List[str]]
    """

    differ = difflib.Differ()

    left_side = []
    right_side = []

    # adapted from
    # LINK: https://stackoverflow.com/a/66091742/408734
    difflines = list(differ.compare(left, right))

    for line in difflines:
        op = line[0]
        tail = line[2:]
        if op == " ":
            # line is same in both
            left_side.append(tail)
            right_side.append(tail)

        elif op == "-":
            # line is only on the left
            left_side.append(tail)
            right_side.append("")

        elif op == "+":
            # line is only on the right
            left_side.append("")
            right_side.append(tail)

    return side_by_side(
        left=left_side,
        right=right_side,
        width=width,
        as_string=as_string,
        separator=separator,
        left_title=left_title,
        right_title=right_title,
    )

Dear @haferburg !!

Thanks for taking the time to chime in about this — well observed, I completely agree. I am going to look into making this change tomorrow or Sunday, and I'll follow up when I am done. You rock!!

FYI:
I worked on an alternative implementation here: https://gist.github.com/soxofaan/e97112c4789ee74e1bf61532c998c0eb

The better_diff of this gist did not work well for me, e.g. using on the same data of https://gist.github.com/soxofaan/e97112c4789ee74e1bf61532c998c0eb?permalink_comment_id=4528416#gistcomment-4528416 gave me this:

{                                     | {
  "exp": 1680773344,                  |   "exp": 1680773344,
  "iat": 1680773044,                  |   "iat": 1680773044,
  "jti":                              | 
"40410c7c-8828-4755-a5b8-fa09b8736542", |   "jti":
                                      | "564abdb3-6e34-4a7c-b00e-77d1ee675847",
  "iss":                              |   "iss":
"http://localhost:8642/realms/i168realm", | "http://localhost:8642/realms/i168realm",
  "aud": "account",                   |   "aud": "account",
  "sub":                              | 
"7e7feab3-afd4-4186-a00c-c546ac51a749", |   "sub":
                                      | "d2aa0547-daaa-478b-9cb9-1ba2b1aaf47c",
  "typ": "Bearer",                    |   "typ": "Bearer",
                                      |   "azp": "service-client-L8FFS94R",
                                      |   "preferred_username": "service-
  "azp": "public-client-VQ5r6dli",    | account-service-client-l8ffs94r",
  "session_state":                    | 
"0c09bcad-45de-47ff-b645-e1212047d39a", | 
  "preferred_username":               | 
"user-c39y4yag",                      |   "email_verified": false,
  "email_verified": false,            |   "acr": "1",
  "acr": "1",                         |   "realm_access": {
  "realm_access": {                   |     "roles": [
    "roles": [                        |       "default-roles-i168realm",
      "default-roles-i168realm",      |       "offline_access",