Compare data structures (without loops)

Jenda has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Does anyone know an easy way (a module or something) to compare two data structures (iregular HoHoA)? I don't need to get the differences printed to anywhere all I'd need is to be able to test whether $A contains all the data in $B (I don't mind if $A contains some more fields).

I'd like to add a few tests to XML::DTDParser and to me the easiest solution seems to be to (when creating the tests) parse a few DTDs, dump the results to files with Data::Dumper and then the tests will try to parse the same DTDs again and see if they get the same results.

Thanks, Jenda

Comment on Compare data structures (without loops)

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Re: Compare data structures (without loops) by jasonk (Parson) on Feb 19, 2003 at 17:45 UTC
This wheel has been invented several times, but Data::Compare or Struct::Compare seem to be the closest to what you are looking for.	[reply]
Re: Re: Compare data structures (without loops) by Jenda (Abbot) on Feb 19, 2003 at 20:46 UTC
Thanks. I know I should have looked into CPAN. I was sure to find many so I was hoping for an "I'm using this one and am happy with it" type of response. :-) Data::Compare looks slightly better (though neither seems to care about loops), so I'll take that one as the basis. As I said I need/want something a little different. I don't need `$struct1 == $struct2`, but something like `$struct1 <= $struct2`. That is "Do all hashes in $struct2 contain all the keys as those in $struct1 and with the same values? Do all arrays in $struct2 have at least as many items and those in $struct1 and do those have the same values? I don't mind if the hashes in $struct2 contain additional keys or the arrays have more item. I have this implemented (will then send my additions to the Data::Compare's author), but I can't think up a decent name for the function. During the development I used CompareX(), but that doesn't say anything about what it does. Does anyone have a suggestion? Jenda	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Compare data structures (without loops) by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Feb 19, 2003 at 22:50 UTC
Maybe `contains_at_least`? I can't think of any better name.. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]


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