Calculate difference in keys contained in two Python dictionaries

Question

Suppose I have two Python dictionaries - dictA and dictB. I need to find out if there are any keys which are present in dictB but not

Answer 1

here's a solution that can compare more than two dicts:

def diff_dict(dicts, default=None):
    diff_dict = {}
    # add 'list()' around 'd.keys()' for python 3 compatibility
    for k in set(sum([d.keys() for d in dicts], [])):
        # we can just use "values = [d.get(k, default) ..." below if 
        # we don't care that d1[k]=default and d2[k]=missing will
        # be treated as equal
        if any(k not in d for d in dicts):
            diff_dict[k] = [d.get(k, default) for d in dicts]
        else:
            values = [d[k] for d in dicts]
            if any(v != values[0] for v in values):
                diff_dict[k] = values
    return diff_dict

usage example:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
diff_dict([plt.rcParams, plt.rcParamsDefault, plt.matplotlib.rcParamsOrig])