json recursive comparison with another json in python

Question

I am comparing if all elements of a json object are inside another json. for that i grab all keys in one layer of the small one and check if they are in the big one and if they are the same. to go into a deeper layer i call the function giving it the element that contains the deeper layer. (in this funtion now i detect the deeper layer with the key "results" but i futur it will be changed to a variable key. my Problem is that i can't call the recursive function. it sais "string indices must be integers, not unicode" in the script when trying to call the function in the function.

def compareJson(example_json_s, target_json_s): 
    #parsed_json
    example_json = example_json_s
    target_json = target_json_s
    p = 0
    keys = []
    for key in example_json.keys(): 
        keys.insert(p, key)
        p = p + 1

    passed = 0;
    for x in keys: 
        print "Keys"
        if x != "results": 
            if not x in target_json or x not in example_json.keys() and not example_json[x] == target_json[x]: 
                passed = 1
        else:
            print """###inhabits "results " going one layer deeper"""
        compareJson(example_json[key], target_json[key])
    return passed

and some example json objects:

{
    "results": {
        "clock": true,
        "update": false,
        "autoreg": false
    }
} 

{
    "id": "1523",
    "dlid": "009029",
    "serial": "1017030022",
    "statuscode": 128,
    "results": {
        "event": true,
        "counter": true,
        "clock": true,
        "eqep": true,
        "usb": false,
        "modem": true,
        "sim": true,
        "pin": true,
        "encrypt": false,
        "upload": true,
        "update": true,
        "autoreg": true
    },
    "ok": false,
    "confirmed": false
}

And the Error code here:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/philip/Desktop/empfang_test.py", line 199, in <module>
    empfange() #Programm wartet in einer Endlosschleife auf eingehende Nachrichten.
  File "/home/philip/Desktop/empfang_test.py", line 193, in empfange
    checkvalue=compareJson(json.loads(config[1][1]),parsed_json_dummy)
  File "/home/philip/Desktop/empfang_test.py", line 183, in compareJson
    compareJson(example_json[key],target_json[key])   
TypeError: string indices must be integers, not str

what is the desired output? True/False or a list (or dict) of which fields are present? — Pynchia
– Pynchia, Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 9:41
What about fixture pythonhosted.org/testfixtures/comparing.html that provide dict comparison. — Ali SAID OMAR
– Ali SAID OMAR, Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 10:09

Pynchia · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-13 10:20:59Z

2

Here is my solution

def contained(a, b):
    """ checks if dictionary a is fully contained in b """
    if not isinstance(a, dict):
        return a == b
    else:
        return all(contained(v, b.get(k)) for k, v in a.items())

print(contained(d1, d2))

which, for your input gives False and for

d1 = {
      "results": {
                  "clock": True,
                  "update": True,
                  "autoreg": True
                 }
     }

gives True

and for

d1 = {
    "results": {
        "clock": True,
        "update": True,
        "autoreg": True,
        "qqq": True
    }
}

i.e. a key is missing from the target (e.g. qqq), it gives False

Of course you can call it with

contained(json.loads(example_json_s), json.loads(target_json_s))

when starting from a JSON string

edited Jan 13, 2016 at 10:20

answered Jan 13, 2016 at 10:12

Pynchia

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2 Comments

MrHug Over a year ago

I think that if there is a k such that k not in b it should return False?

Pynchia Over a year ago

@MrHug yes, fixed. Thank you

MrHug · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-13 14:08:49Z

0

I think the following code should do the trick:

def compareJson(example_json_s, target_json_s):
 example_json = json.loads(example_json_s)
 target_json = json.loads(target_json_s)
 return compareParsedJson(example_json, target_json)

def compareParsedJson(example_json, target_json):   
 for x in example_json:
   if type(example_json[x]) is not dict:
     if not x in target_json or not example_json[x] == target_json[x]:
       return False
   else:
     if x not in target_json or not compareParsedJson(example_json[x], target_json[x]):
      return False

 return True

In the first function we parse the full JSON object (including the recursive parts). The second analyses them.

I have made several changes to your code.

There is no need to get a list of the keys first, you can just iterate over example_json.keys(). Additionally I would have replaced it with keys.append(key) in your example.
The function checks if the type of the nested json object is now a dict (it has already been parsed). If not, then it compares them, if so, then it goed into the next one. You might want to add a similar clause for lists.
The function returns False as soon as a part of the JSON is not the same.

EDIT: In response to your posted error code, I think you might not have parsed the json correctly. I took your comment #parsed_json to mean that you had, but I think you were missing the json.loads method calls I included in my code example above..?

edited Jan 13, 2016 at 14:08

answered Jan 13, 2016 at 9:33

MrHug

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2 Comments

MrHug Over a year ago

You are most welcome. Thank you for the acceptance of the answer.

jatinderjit Over a year ago

On a side note, avoid using dict.keys() when all you want is to iterate over a dictionary. Simply remove the .keys() to get for k in dict:. Ref: stackoverflow.com/questions/4730993/…

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