pbrzn / hash_compare

Hash Compare

A simple solution for comparing hashes in Ruby.

Instructions

Fork and clone this repo, then navigate to the newly created Hash Compare directory and run bundle install in your terminal. This will install any necessary dependencies.

While still in the Hash Compare directory, open IRB in your terminal and type require './lib/compare_hashes.rb'. You can now avail yourself to the CompareHashes class.

Create a new instance of CompareHashes via CompareHashes.new and add two hashes as arguments. You also have the option of adding a third argument: a string stating either "shallow" or "deep" (CompareHashes defaults to "shallow"). This indicates to the instance whether you would like to do a shallow comparison of the two hashes or a deep comparison.

NOTE: Requirements for hashes are as follows...

1. Keys must be strings. Because of this, it is best to use the => syntax, as Ruby automatically changes key types to symbols when you use a colon.
2. Values can be the following types: String, Boolean (TrueClass or FalseClass), Number (Integer or Float), Hash and Array. Using incorrect key or value types will raise a TypeError.

To activate and print the results of the comparison, simply call HashCompare's #call method on the newly created instance.

Ex:

CompareHashes.new(
  {
    "a" => 6,
    "b" => ["This", "is", "cool!"],
    "c" => {
      "d" => true
      }
  },
  {
    "a" => 6,
    "b" => ["This", "is", "great!"],
    "c" => {
      "d" => false
      }
  }, "deep").call

This will print/return a result that looks like this:

The array element at index 2, at the key 'b' in both hashes differ...
___1st Hash___
At b: array[2] is cool!
___2nd Hash___
At b: array[2] is great!
----------------------------------------------------
This key common to both hashes has differing values in each hash.
___1st Hash___
c --> d: true
___2nd Hash___
c --> d: false
----------------------------------------------------
These hashes are not equal.
 => false

To Run Test Suite

In the command line, simply type the command bundle exec rspec spec/compare_hashes.rb to run the RSpec test suite.