XmlComparator

GoLang library for comparing XML strings

Overview

API consists of two functions -

xmlcomparator.CompareXmlStrings(sample1 string, sample2 string, stopOnFirst bool) []string
xmlcomparator.CompareXmlStringsEx(sample1 string, sample2 string, stopOnFirst bool, ignored []string) []string

that return a list of detected differences between two XML samples. Comparison can be stopped on the first occasion - stopOnFirst=true. The second form takes a list of RegEx strings to be used as a filter for ignored differences.

Each entry in the returned list contains the XML path to the node like ..., path='/note/to[0]'. Path elements might contain zero-based index of an element in the siblings list.

When a difference in children elements is detected, the message has the form Children differ: counts 3 vs 4: ... where the first number is the count of children in the first sample. Mismatched child elements in the diffs list have two numbers. The first, in square brackets, is the index in the sibling nodes list. The second - suffix like :+1 or :-3 is the count of consecutive mismatched elements with the same name. A positive number relates to the count of elements in sample1, negative - to sample2.

Example of usage in the code -

    import (
        "github.com/aknopov/xmlcomparator"
    )

    ...
    xmlSample1 := "<a><b/><c/></a>"
    xmlSample2 := "<a><c/><b/></a>"
    diffs := xmlcomparator.CompareXmlStrings(xmlSample1, xmlSample2, false)
    assert.Equal([]string{"Children order differ for 2 nodes, path='/a'"},
        CompareXmlStrings(xmlSample1, xmlSample2, true))

    xmlSample3 := `<a><b><c/><c/><d/></b></a>`
    xmlSample4 := `<a><b><d/><e/><e/><e/></b></a>`
    assert.Equal([]string{"Children differ: counts 3 vs 4: c[0]:+2, e[1]:-3, path='/a/b'"}, CompareXmlStrings(xmlSample3, xmlSample4, false))

    diffs := CompareXmlStringsEx(xmlString1, xmlMixed, false, []string{`Node texts differ: '.+' vs '.+'`})
    assert.Equal(1, len(diffs))

    xmlString5 := `<a>Node Content</a>`
    xmlString6 := `<a>Another Content</a>`
    diffs = CompareXmlStringsEx(xmlString5, xmlString6, false, []string{`Node textsNodes test differ: '.+' vs '.+'`})
    assert.Equal(0, len(diffs))

    // To get more insite
    recorder := ComputeDifferences(xmlString1, xmlMixed, false, []string{})
    assert.Equal(3, len(recorder.Diffs))
    assert.Equal(DiffContent, recorder.Diffs[0].GetType())
    assert.Equal("Node texts differ: 'Jani' vs 'Tove', path='/note/from[1]'", recorder.Diffs[0].DescribeDiff())
    assert.Equal("/note/from[1]", recorder.Diffs[0].XmlPath())