Let’s start with an example on how to find the diff between two dictionaries using diff() method: from dictdiffer import diff, patch, swap, revert first = { "title": "hello", "fork_count": 20, "stargazers": ["/users/20", "/users/30"], "settings": { "assignees": [100, 101, 201], } } second = { "title": "hellooo", "fork_count": 20, "stargazers": ["/users/20", "/users/30", "/users/40"], "settings": { "assignees": [100, 101, 202], } } result = diff(first, second) assert list(result) == [ ('change', ['settings', 'assignees', 2], (201, 202)), ('add', 'stargazers', [(2, '/users/40')]), ('change', 'title', ('hello', 'hellooo'))] Now we can apply the diff result with patch() method: result = diff(first, second) patched = patch(result, first) assert patched == second Also we can swap the diff result with swap() method: result = diff(first, second) swapped = swap(result) assert list(swapped) == [ ('change', ['settings', 'assignees', 2], (202, 201)), ('remove', 'stargazers', [(2, '/users/40')]), ('change', 'title', ('hellooo', 'hello'))] Let’s revert the last changes: result = diff(first, second) reverted = revert(result, patched) assert reverted == first A tolerance can be used to consider closed values as equal. The tolerance parameter only applies for int and float. Let’s try with a tolerance of 10% with the values 10 and 10.5: first = {'a': 10.0} second = {'a': 10.5} result = diff(first, second, tolerance=0.1) assert list(result) == [] Now with a tolerance of 1%: result = diff(first, second, tolerance=0.01) assert list(result) == ('change', 'a', (10.0, 10.5)) API Dictdiffer is a helper module to diff and patch dictionaries. dictdiffer.diff(first, second, node=None, ignore=None, path_limit=None, expand=False, tolerance=2.220446049250313e-16) Compare two dictionary/list/set objects, and returns a diff result. Return an iterator with differences between two objects. The diff items represent addition/deletion/change and the item value is a deep copy from the corresponding source or destination objects. >>> from dictdiffer import diff >>> result = diff({'a': 'b'}, {'a': 'c'}) >>> list(result) [('change', 'a', ('b', 'c'))] The keys can be skipped from difference calculation when they are included in ignore argument of type collections.Container. >>> list(diff({'a': 1, 'b': 2}, {'a': 3, 'b': 4}, ignore=set(['a']))) [('change', 'b', (2, 4))] >>> class IgnoreCase(set): ... def __contains__(self, key): ... return set.__contains__(self, str(key).lower()) >>> list(diff({'a': 1, 'b': 2}, {'A': 3, 'b': 4}, ignore=IgnoreCase('a'))) [('change', 'b', (2, 4))] The difference calculation can be limitted to certain path: >>> list(diff({}, {'a': {'b': 'c'}})) [('add', '', [('a', {'b': 'c'})])] >>> from dictdiffer.utils import PathLimit >>> list(diff({}, {'a': {'b': 'c'}}, path_limit=PathLimit())) [('add', '', [('a', {})]), ('add', 'a', [('b', 'c')])] >>> from dictdiffer.utils import PathLimit >>> list(diff({}, {'a': {'b': 'c'}}, path_limit=PathLimit([('a',)]))) [('add', '', [('a', {'b': 'c'})])] >>> from dictdiffer.utils import PathLimit >>> list(diff({}, {'a': {'b': 'c'}}, ... path_limit=PathLimit([('a', 'b')]))) [('add', '', [('a', {})]), ('add', 'a', [('b', 'c')])] The patch can be expanded to small units e.g. when adding multiple values: >>> list(diff({'fruits': []}, {'fruits': ['apple', 'mango']})) [('add', 'fruits', [(0, 'apple'), (1, 'mango')])] >>> list(diff({'fruits': []}, {'fruits': ['apple', 'mango']}, expand=True)) [('add', 'fruits', [(0, 'apple')]), ('add', 'fruits', [(1, 'mango')])] Parameters: first – The original dictionary, list or set. second – New dictionary, list or set. node – Key for comparison that can be used in dot_lookup(). ignore – List of keys that should not be checked. path_limit – List of path limit tuples or dictdiffer.utils.Pathlimit object to limit the diff recursion depth. expand – Expand the patches. tolerance – Threshold to consider when comparing two float numbers. Changed in version 0.3: Added ignore parameter. Changed in version 0.4: Arguments first and second can now contain a set. Changed in version 0.5: Added path_limit parameter. Added expand paramter. Added tolerance parameter. Changed in version 0.7: Diff items are deep copies from its corresponding objects. dictdiffer.patch(diff_result, destination) Patch the diff result to the old dictionary. dictdiffer.swap(diff_result) Swap the diff result. It uses following mapping: remove -> add add -> remove In addition, swap the changed values for change flag. >>> from dictdiffer import swap >>> swapped = swap([('add', 'a.b.c', [('a', 'b'), ('c', 'd')])]) >>> next(swapped) ('remove', 'a.b.c', [('c', 'd'), ('a', 'b')]) >>> swapped = swap([('change', 'a.b.c', ('a', 'b'))]) >>> next(swapped) ('change', 'a.b.c', ('b', 'a')) dictdiffer.revert(diff_result, destination) Call swap function to revert patched dictionary object. Usage example: >>> from dictdiffer import diff, revert >>> first = {'a': 'b'} >>> second = {'a': 'c'} >>> revert(diff(first, second), second) {'a': 'b'} dictdiffer.dot_lookup(source, lookup, parent=False) Allow you to reach dictionary items with string or list lookup. Recursively find value by lookup key split by ‘.’. >>> from dictdiffer.utils import dot_lookup >>> dot_lookup({'a': {'b': 'hello'}}, 'a.b') 'hello' If parent argument is True, returns the parent node of matched object. >>> dot_lookup({'a': {'b': 'hello'}}, 'a.b', parent=True) {'b': 'hello'} If node is empty value, returns the whole dictionary object. >>> dot_lookup({'a': {'b': 'hello'}}, '') {'a': {'b': 'hello'}}