How do I compare two hashes?

Question

I am trying to compare two Ruby Hashes using the following code:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require \"yaml\"
require \"active_support\"

file1 = YAML::load(File.op         


        

Answer 1

If you want to get what is the difference between two hashes, you can do this:

h1 = {:a => 20, :b => 10, :c => 44}
h2 = {:a => 2, :b => 10, :c => "44"}
result = {}
h1.each {|k, v| result[k] = h2[k] if h2[k] != v }
p result #=> {:a => 2, :c => "44"}

Answer 2

Rails is deprecating the diff method.

For a quick one-liner:

hash1.to_s == hash2.to_s

Answer 3

How about another, simpler approach:

require 'fileutils'
FileUtils.cmp(file1, file2)

Answer 4

You can try the hashdiff gem, which allows deep comparison of hashes and arrays in the hash.

The following is an example:

a = {a:{x:2, y:3, z:4}, b:{x:3, z:45}}
b = {a:{y:3}, b:{y:3, z:30}}

diff = HashDiff.diff(a, b)
diff.should == [['-', 'a.x', 2], ['-', 'a.z', 4], ['-', 'b.x', 3], ['~', 'b.z', 45, 30], ['+', 'b.y', 3]]

Answer 5

You could use a simple array intersection, this way you can know what differs in each hash.

    hash1 = { a: 1 , b: 2 }
    hash2 = { a: 2 , b: 2 }

    overlapping_elements = hash1.to_a & hash2.to_a

    exclusive_elements_from_hash1 = hash1.to_a - overlapping_elements
    exclusive_elements_from_hash2 = hash2.to_a - overlapping_elements

Answer 6

If you want a nicely formatted diff, you can do this:

# Gemfile
gem 'awesome_print' # or gem install awesome_print

And in your code:

require 'ap'

def my_diff(a, b)
  as = a.ai(plain: true).split("\n").map(&:strip)
  bs = b.ai(plain: true).split("\n").map(&:strip)
  ((as - bs) + (bs - as)).join("\n")
end

puts my_diff({foo: :bar, nested: {val1: 1, val2: 2}, end: :v},
             {foo: :bar, n2: {nested: {val1: 1, val2: 3}}, end: :v})

The idea is to use awesome print to format, and diff the output. The diff won't be exact, but it is useful for debugging purposes.