Below is the code to produce difference -- with help of diff(1) -- in two scalars, to be understood by a human (well, at least the ones who can read diff(1) output).

package DumpDiff;

#  Usage:
#
#    use DumpDiff qw[ dump_diff ];
#    print dump_diff( [ 0 .. 5 ] , [ 3 .. 12 ] , "-u -U 8");

use warnings;
use strict;

use Exporter 'import';
BEGIN
{
  sub dump_diff;
  our @EXPORT = qw[ dump_diff ];
}

use Carp qw[ croak ];
use Data::Dumper;
use Fatal qw[ :void open close ];
use File::Temp;

#  Pass in two scalar to get the difference. Optional third parameter
#  is passed as is to diff(1), instead the default of "-uBb".
#
#  diff(1) output is returned as either a list or a string based on 
#  calling context.
sub dump_diff
{
  my ( $one , $two , $opt ) = @_;

  local $Data::Dumper::Sortkeys = 1;
  local $Data::Dumper::Indent = 1;
  local $Data::Dumper::Deepcopy = 1;

  my $oh = File::Temp->new;
  print $oh Dumper( $one );
  close $oh;

  my $th = File::Temp->new;
  print $th Dumper( $two );
  close $th;

  my $one_dump = $oh->filename;
  my $two_dump = $th->filename;

  $opt ||= '-uBb';
  my @diff = qx{diff $opt $one_dump $two_dump};

  if ( $? == 0 && !$! )
  {
    return;
  }
  elsif ( $! )
  {
    croak "cannot run 'diff $opt $one_dump $two_dump'': $!";
  }

  return
    wantarray
      ? @diff
      : join '' , @diff
      ;
}

1;

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In reply to Re^2: Compare/Diff on nested data structures by Anonymous Monk
in thread Compare/Diff on nested data structures by cosmicperl

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