This answers a little broader question than you're asking but I use this in my test harnesses to see if the container
dictionary contains something that looks like the contained
dictionary. This checks keys and values. Additionally you can use the keyword 'ANYTHING'
to indicate that you don't care how it matches.
def contains(container, contained):
'''ensure that `contained` is present somewhere in `container`
EXAMPLES:
contains(
{'a': 3, 'b': 4},
{'a': 3}
) # True
contains(
{'a': [3, 4, 5]},
{'a': 3},
) # True
contains(
{'a': 4, 'b': {'a':3}},
{'a': 3}
) # True
contains(
{'a': 4, 'b': {'a':3, 'c': 5}},
{'a': 3, 'c': 5}
) # True
# if an `contained` has a list, then every item from that list must be present
# in the corresponding `container` list
contains(
{'a': [{'b':1}, {'b':2}, {'b':3}], 'c':4},
{'a': [{'b':1},{'b':2}], 'c':4},
) # True
# You can also use the string literal 'ANYTHING' to match anything
contains(
{'a': [{'b':3}]},
{'a': 'ANYTHING'},
) # True
# You can use 'ANYTHING' as a dict key and it indicates to match the corresponding value anywhere
# below the current point
contains(
{'a': [ {'x':1,'b1':{'b2':{'c':'SOMETHING'}}}]},
{'a': {'ANYTHING': 'SOMETHING', 'x':1}},
) # True
contains(
{'a': [ {'x':1, 'b':'SOMETHING'}]},
{'a': {'ANYTHING': 'SOMETHING', 'x':1}},
) # True
contains(
{'a': [ {'x':1,'b1':{'b2':{'c':'SOMETHING'}}}]},
{'a': {'ANYTHING': 'SOMETHING', 'x':1}},
) # True
'''
ANYTHING = 'ANYTHING'
if contained == ANYTHING:
return True
if container == contained:
return True
if isinstance(container, list):
if not isinstance(contained, list):
contained = [contained]
true_count = 0
for contained_item in contained:
for item in container:
if contains(item, contained_item):
true_count += 1
break
if true_count == len(contained):
return True
if isinstance(contained, dict) and isinstance(container, dict):
contained_keys = set(contained.keys())
if ANYTHING in contained_keys:
contained_keys.remove(ANYTHING)
if not contains(container, contained[ANYTHING]):
return False
container_keys = set(container.keys())
if len(contained_keys - container_keys) == 0:
# then all the contained keys are in this container ~ recursive check
if all(
contains(container[key], contained[key])
for key in contained_keys
):
return True
# well, we're here, so I guess we didn't find a match yet
if isinstance(container, dict):
for value in container.values():
if contains(value, contained):
return True
return False