Assert that two dictionaries are almost equal

Question

I am trying to assert that two dictionaries are almost equal, but I can't seem to do that.

Here is an example:

>>> import nose.tools as nt
>>> nt.assert_dict_equal({'a' : 12.4}, {'a' : 5.6 + 6.8})
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/case.py", line 838, in assertDictEqual
    self.fail(self._formatMessage(msg, standardMsg))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/case.py", line 413, in fail
    raise self.failureException(msg)
AssertionError: {'a': 12.4} != {'a': 12.399999999999999}
- {'a': 12.4}
+ {'a': 12.399999999999999}

I would like this to pass, like that:

>>> nt.assert_almost_equal(12.4, 5.6 + 6.8)

I am hoping that I missing something simple like, nt.assert_almost_dict_equal, or maybe there is parameter that I could pass to nt.assert_dict_equal that specifies how close floating points should be, but I can't find anything.

Of course, I could just loop over the dictionaries and use nt.assert_almost_equal to compare the values individually; however, in my case the dictionary is more complicated, so I was hoping to avoid that.

What is the best way to assert that two dictionaries are almost equal?

Answer 1

The comment by @dano answered my question:

I copied a function from a link provided by dano

import unittest
import numpy

def assertDeepAlmostEqual(test_case, expected, actual, *args, **kwargs):
    """
    Assert that two complex structures have almost equal contents.

    Compares lists, dicts and tuples recursively. Checks numeric values
    using test_case's :py:meth:`unittest.TestCase.assertAlmostEqual` and
    checks all other values with :py:meth:`unittest.TestCase.assertEqual`.
    Accepts additional positional and keyword arguments and pass those
    intact to assertAlmostEqual() (that's how you specify comparison
    precision).

    :param test_case: TestCase object on which we can call all of the basic
    'assert' methods.
    :type test_case: :py:class:`unittest.TestCase` object
    """
    is_root = not '__trace' in kwargs
    trace = kwargs.pop('__trace', 'ROOT')
    try:
        if isinstance(expected, (int, float, long, complex)):
            test_case.assertAlmostEqual(expected, actual, *args, **kwargs)
        elif isinstance(expected, (list, tuple, numpy.ndarray)):
            test_case.assertEqual(len(expected), len(actual))
            for index in xrange(len(expected)):
                v1, v2 = expected[index], actual[index]
                assertDeepAlmostEqual(test_case, v1, v2,
                                      __trace=repr(index), *args, **kwargs)
        elif isinstance(expected, dict):
            test_case.assertEqual(set(expected), set(actual))
            for key in expected:
                assertDeepAlmostEqual(test_case, expected[key], actual[key],
                                      __trace=repr(key), *args, **kwargs)
        else:
            test_case.assertEqual(expected, actual)
    except AssertionError as exc:
        exc.__dict__.setdefault('traces', []).append(trace)
        if is_root:
            trace = ' -> '.join(reversed(exc.traces))
            exc = AssertionError("%s\nTRACE: %s" % (exc.message, trace))
        raise exc

# My part, using the function

class TestMyClass(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_dicts(self):
        assertDeepAlmostEqual(self, {'a' : 12.4}, {'a' : 5.6 + 6.8})
    def test_dicts_2(self):
        dict_1 = {'a' : {'b' : [12.4, 0.3]}}
        dict_2 = {'a' : {'b' : [5.6 + 6.8, 0.1 + 0.2]}}

        assertDeepAlmostEqual(self, dict_1, dict_2)

def main():
    unittest.main()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Result:

Ran 2 tests in 0.000s

OK