Hello KeighleHawk,

Naturally, the array can be returned in random order.

Actually, the elements of an array are always in a fixed order — that’s the nature of arrays. I think you mean the array will be populated in a random order?

...part of the structure I am comparing includes an array of hashes.... Initially, I was using a sort on one of the hash fields, but as my data set increased, I started to hit return values with different hash structures so my sorting column needed to change.

I don’t understand this. If you are comparing an array of hashes with an unordered list of hashes, it seems to me that you have to proceed in two steps:

1. Pair the hashes;
2. For each pair, the hashes are equal if and only if they contain exactly the same key/value pairs (in any order).

From which (I think) it follows that a generic procedure is all that’s required:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Test::More tests => 2;
use Test::Deep;

my @x = ( { j => 12, a => 1 }, { b => [1, 11] }, { c => 3 } );
my @y = ( { c => 3 }, { b => [0, 11] }, { a => 1, j => 12 } );

cmp_deeply(          \@x,        bag(@y), 'Deep' );
print '-' x 20, "\n";
 is_deeply( sort_hash(@x), sort_hash(@y), 'More' );

sub sort_hash
{
    return [ sort { (sort keys %$a)[0] cmp (sort keys %$b)[0] } @_ ];
}
[download]

Output:

16:56 >perl 1314_SoPW.pl
1..2
not ok 1 - Deep
#   Failed test 'Deep'
#   at 1314_SoPW.pl line 22.
# Comparing $data as a Bag
# Missing: 1 reference
# Extra: 1 reference
--------------------
not ok 2 - More
#   Failed test 'More'
#   at 1314_SoPW.pl line 24.
#     Structures begin differing at:
#          $got->[1]{b}[0] = '1'
#     $expected->[1]{b}[0] = '0'
# Looks like you failed 2 tests of 2.

16:56 >
[download]

Clearly, Test::More::is_deeply returns a much more informative message on failure than does Test::Deep::cmp_deeply — as you have stated. But in what way does my sub sort_hash fall short of the functionality provided by Test::Deep::bag for your purposes? Please clarify by providing sample input for which the comparison with Test::Deep::bag will work, but a generic comparison based on hash keys will not.

Hope that helps,

yes, the array can be populated in random order :-).

The data set is slightly different than your example. The keys for each hash within the test run are the same. They differ between runs/tests.

Test 1 sample.

$got = 
    [ { key_1 => "A", key_2 => "CC"}
    , { key_1 => "B", key_2 => "CC"}
    ]
$expected =  
    [ { key_1 => "B", key_2 => "CC"}
    , { key_1 => "A", key_2 => "CC"}
    ]
[download]

I want these to evaluate as equal, and they do with code like this (similar to yours):

return is deeply ( $got
                   ? [ sort {$a->{key_1} cmp $b->{key_1}}
                              $got ]
                   : []
                 , $expected
                   ? [ sort {$a->{key_1} cmp $b->{key_1}}
                              $expected ]
                   : []
                 , "Test array of hashes"
[download]

(the ternary operator is there because "no data returned" is also a valid/possible response).

The problem arises with Test 2 which has the following data:

$got = 
    [ { key_3 => "A", key_2 => "CC"}
    , { key_3 => "B", key_2 => "CC"}
    ]
$expected =  
    [ { key_3 => "B", key_2 => "CC"}
    , { key_3 => "A", key_2 => "CC"}
    ]
[download]

The problem is the sorting key name has changed from 'key_1' to 'key_3' so my sort:

sort {$a->{key_1} cmp $b->{key_1}}
[download]

fails on the second data set. I could pass in the key names as variables, but was hoping to avoid that, especially since Test::Deep->bag() does exactly what I want.

The working Test::Deep code looks like this:

return = cmp_deeply ( $got
                      ? [ $got ]
                      : []
                    , bag ( $expected
                            ? $expected
                            : () )
                    );
[download]

(different brackets on bag due to return type, I need to double check that...)

So Test::Deep->bag() works for me because it does magic I don't have to when deciding how to sort the second array.

Robert Kuropkat

OK, I think I understand now; I hadn’t realised that separate hashes within the one array could legitimately contain the same keys with different values.

I still think a generic procedure will work, it just needs a comprehensive sorting algorithm:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Test::More tests => 2;
use Test::Deep;

my @x = 
(
    { key_3 => 'A', key_2 => 'CC', key_4 => 'E', key_5 => 0 },
    { key_3 => 'A', key_2 => 'DD', key_4 => 'F' },
);

my @y =  
(
    { key_3 => 'A', key_2 => 'DD', key_4 => 'F' },
    { key_5 =>  0,  key_3 => 'A',  key_2 => 'CC', key_4 => 'E' },
);

cmp_deeply(        \@x,      bag(@y), 'Deep' );
print '-' x 20, "\n";
 is_deeply( my_sort(@x), my_sort(@y), 'More' );

sub my_sort
{
    my $f = sub
    {
        my @keys_a = sort keys %$a;
        my @keys_b = sort keys %$b;

        return -1 if @keys_a < @keys_b;
        return  1 if @keys_a > @keys_b;

        my $result   = 0;
           $result ||= $keys_a[$_]  cmp      $keys_b[$_] ||
                  $a->{$keys_a[$_]} cmp $b->{$keys_b[$_]} for 0 .. $#k
+eys_a;

        return $result;
    };

    return [ sort $f @_ ];
}
[download]

(For the basic idea, see How-do-I-sort-an-array-by-anything of perlfaq4.) Output:

14:38 >perl 1314a_SoPW.pl
1..2
ok 1 - Deep
--------------------
ok 2 - More

14:38 >
[download]

Disclaimer: I’ve tested this only minimally; there may be corner cases I haven’t found. But I think this should allow you to return to using Test::More::is_deeply to get the benefit of its superior failure messages.

Hope that helps,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum

Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,