Alex Rivera | Logout

Calculate difference in keys contained in two Python dictionaries

Asked 2009-07-22T13:43:13.410
177

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 in dictA. What is the fastest way to go about it?

Should I convert the dictionary keys into a set and then go about?

Interested in knowing your thoughts...

Thanks for your responses.

Apologies for not stating my question properly. My scenario is like this - I have a dictA which can be the same as dictB or may have some keys missing as compared to dictB or else the value of some keys might be different which has to be set to that of dictA key's value.

Problem is the dictionary has no standard and can have values which can be dict of dict.

Say

dictA={'key1':a, 'key2':b, 'key3':{'key11':cc, 'key12':dd}, 'key4':{'key111':{....}}}
dictB={'key1':a, 'key2:':newb, 'key3':{'key11':cc, 'key12':newdd, 'key13':ee}.......

So 'key2' value has to be reset to the new value and 'key13' has to be added inside the dict. The key value does not have a fixed format. It can be a simple value or a dict or a dict of dict.

python dictionary
Edit
Report

2 Answers

19

not sure whether its "fast" or not, but normally, one can do this

dicta = {"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4}
dictb = {"a":1,"d":2}
for key in dicta.keys():
    if not key in dictb:
        print key
answered 2009-07-22T13:48:39.160
2

what about standart (compare FULL Object)

PyDev->new PyDev Module->Module: unittest

import unittest


class Test(unittest.TestCase):


    def testName(self):
        obj1 = {1:1, 2:2}
        obj2 = {1:1, 2:2}
        self.maxDiff = None # sometimes is usefull
        self.assertDictEqual(d1, d2)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    #import sys;sys.argv = ['', 'Test.testName']

    unittest.main()
answered 2012-01-26T20:19:12.140

Your Answer