in reply to Compare complex perl data structures

If all you need to know is are they the same or different -- and not how and where -- then the simplest method I know of is to use a dump routine to convert them to single strings and compare the strings,

Data::Dump will sort the structures for you as it constructs the strings:

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Data::Dump qw[ pp ];

my @array1 = [
{'platformid' => '22','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'hp-ux-11.31','host' => '2
+060','cc' => 'A.9','ma' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'FILESYS
+TEM','totalsize' => '3628129 KB','application' => '/depot','hostname'
+ => 'iwf1112060'}],'objecttype' => '2'},
{'platformid' => '100','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'microsoft amd64 wNT-6.1-
+S','ma' => 'A.9','cc' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'OB2BAR','
+totalsize' => '230986 KB','application' => 'IDB','hostname' => '5096'
+},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','totalsize' => '1262152 KB','application' 
+=> 'R: [New Volume]','hostname' => '5096'},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','
+totalsize' => '574463 KB','application' => 'C:','hostname' => '5096'}
+],'objecttype' => '6','host' => '5096'}
];

my @array2 = [
{'platformid' => '100','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'microsoft amd64 wNT-6.1-
+S','ma' => 'A.9','cc' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'OB2BAR','
+totalsize' => '230986 KB','application' => 'IDB','hostname' => '5096'
+},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','totalsize' => '1262152 KB','application' 
+=> 'R: [New Volume]','hostname' => '5096'},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','
+totalsize' => '574463 KB','application' => 'C:','hostname' => '5096'}
+],'objecttype' => '6','host' => '5096'},
{'platformid' => '22','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'hp-ux-11.31','host' => '2
+060','cc' => 'A.9','ma' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'FILESYS
+TEM','totalsize' => '3628129 KB','application' => '/depot','hostname'
+ => '2060'}],'objecttype' => '2'}
];

print 'The data structures are ', pp( \@array1 ) eq pp( \@array2 ) ? '
+the same' : 'different';

__END__
C:\test>1174098.pl
The data structures are different

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Re^2: Compare complex perl data structures
by AnishaM (Acolyte) on Oct 16, 2016 at 12:38 UTC
    Thanks so much for replying BrowserUk.But, the issue is Dump is not working when both the data structures are not in order. For e.g. Though these two data structures are the same, since they are not sorted,output says that they are different. 
    my @array1 = [
{'platformid' => '100','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'microsoft amd64 wNT-6.1-
+S','ma' => 'A.9','cc' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'OB2BAR','
+totalsize' => '230986 KB','application' => 'IDB','hostname' => '5096'
+},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','totalsize' => '1262152 KB','application' 
+=> 'R: [New Volume]','hostname' => '5096'},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','
+totalsize' => '574463 KB','application' => 'C:','hostname' => '5096'}
+],'objecttype' => '6','host' => '5096'},
{'platformid' => '22','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'hp-ux-11.31','host' => '2
+060','cc' => 'A.9','ma' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'FILESYS
+TEM','totalsize' => '3628129 KB','application' => '/depot','hostname'
+ => '2060'}],'objecttype' => '2'}
];

my @array2 = [
{'platformid' => '22','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'hp-ux-11.31','host' => '2
+060','cc' => 'A.9','ma' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'FILESYS
+TEM','totalsize' => '3628129 KB','application' => '/depot','hostname'
+ => '2060'}],'objecttype' => '2'},
{'platformid' => '100','da' => 'A.9','os' => 'microsoft amd64 wNT-6.1-
+S','ma' => 'A.9','cc' => 'A.9','size' => [{'objecttype' => 'OB2BAR','
+totalsize' => '230986 KB','application' => 'IDB','hostname' => '5096'
+},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','totalsize' => '1262152 KB','application' 
+=> 'R: [New Volume]','hostname' => '5096'},{'objecttype' => 'WINFS','
+totalsize' => '574463 KB','application' => 'C:','hostname' => '5096'}
+],'objecttype' => '6','host' => '5096'}
];

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      As they are, the data structures are not the same, because arrays are ordered collections of items, so that they are different even if they contain the same items, because the item order is different. But if order of the elements is not important to you, why don't you simply sort them before comparing them? Assuming the value of platformid is unique, it'd be quite easy to sort your arrayrefs on that.

      Please also note what johngg told you: your @array1 and @array2 have only one element each: a reference to an array containing two elements (which are themselves hashrefs). I am not sure that's really what you want.

[reply]
[d/l]

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