gistfile1.py

import json
from json.decoder import JSONArray
from json.scanner import py_make_scanner

class UnorderedList(list):

    """
    Works like a normal list, except the order of elements doesn't matter on 
    comparison

    >>> UnorderedList([1, 2, 3]) == UnorderedList([3, 1, 2])
    True
    >>> UnorderedList([1, 2, 3]) == UnorderedList([3, 1, 2, 2])
    False
    """
    
    def __eq__(self, other):
        if isinstance(other, type(self)):
            return sorted(self) == sorted(other)
        else:
            return False
    
    def __repr__(self):
        return "UnorderedList(%s)" % super(UnorderedList, self).__repr__()

def custom_parse_array(*args, **kwargs):
    values, end = JSONArray(*args, **kwargs)
    return UnorderedList(values), end

class CustomJSONDecoder(json.JSONDecoder):

    """
    Custom decoder that reresents JSON arrays as UnorderedLists.
    Doesn't use C extensions, so possibly slower than the built-in decoder

    >>> json.loads('[1, 2, 3, [4, 5, 6]]', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    UnorderedList([1, 2, 3, UnorderedList([4, 5, 6])])

    >>> l1 = json.loads('[1, 2, 3, [4, 5, 6]]', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    >>> l2 = json.loads('[1, [6, 5, 4], 3, 2]', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    >>> l1 == l2
    True

    >>> l1 = json.loads('[1, 2, 3, [4, 5, 6, 7]]', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    >>> l2 = json.loads('[1, [6, 5, 4], 3, 2]', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    >>> l1 == l2
    False

    >>> l1 = json.loads('{"foo": [1, 2, 3], "bar": 42}', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    >>> l2 = json.loads('{"foo": [3, 2, 1], "bar": 42}', cls=CustomJSONDecoder)
    >>> l1 == l2
    True
    """

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(CustomJSONDecoder, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.parse_array = custom_parse_array
        self.scan_once = py_make_scanner(self)



if __name__ == '__main__':
    import doctest
    doctest.testmod()