Need to compare test cases from two different workbooks and if they match then compare the results in the other columns of same row into new workbook

Question

I am stuck while coding this thing. I have two excel workbooks with similar sheets.These sheet contains test cases, and one of them might have more test cases than the other. I am trying to take out the results of the matching test case, which are available in a different column, to a new file(excel preferably). Next I have to list of test cases that are not present in the other sheet.

import xlrd
import xlwt
m=-1
new=[]
#hard coding of default values
WB1= xlrd.open_workbook("WB1.xls")
WB2= xlrd.open_workbook("WB2.xls")
wb_output = xlwt.Workbook()
ws = wb_output.add_sheet('Comparison_sheet')
WB1_Sheet= WB1.sheet_by_index(1)
WB2_Sheet= WB2.sheet_by_index(1)
if WB1_Sheet.nrows > WB2_Sheet.nrows:
    Last_row=WB2_Sheet.nrows
else:
    Last_row=WB1_Sheet.nrows

if WB1_Sheet.ncols > WB2_Sheet.ncols:
    Last_Column=WB2_Sheet.ncols
else:
    Last_Column=WB1_Sheet.ncols
for x in range(24,Last_row):
    for counter in range(0,30):
        #checking matching test cases in next 20 test cases 
        y=x+counter
        if x>Last_row or y>Last_row:
            y=y-counter
            break;
        if WB2_Sheet.cell_value(x,0) == WB1_Sheet.cell_value(y,0):
            found=1;
            m+=1
            ws.write(m, 0,(str(x +1)))
            ws.write(m, 1,(str(WB1_Sheet.cell_value(x,0)) + "\n" +str(WB2_Sheet.cell_value(y,0))))
            ws.write(m, 2,(str(WB2_Sheet.cell_value(x,3))))
            ws.write(m, 3,(str(WB1_Sheet.cell_value(y,3))))
        if WB2_Sheet.cell_value(x,0) != WB1_Sheet.cell_value(y,0):
            break
first_match_offset=0
for x in range(m,Last_row):
    for counter in range(0,30):
            #checking matching test cases in next 20 test cases 
            #they are sorted such that the test case may appear in next 50 lines or they are not present
            y=x+counter
            if x>Last_row or y>Last_row:
                y=y-counter
                break;
    if WB2_Sheet.cell_value(x,0) == WB1_Sheet.cell_value(y,0):
        first_match_offset = y-m
print first_match_offset
wb_output.save("result.xls')
#its incomplete... need help to complete this thing

Answer 1

I think it would be better if you use the set() datatype. Just create a set for the observations in each workbook and then compare the sets, like:

#create empty set
setA = set()
#then you loop all registers and add them to your set
setA.add(WB1_Sheet.cell_value(y,0))

#later create a setB for WB2

#to get a list of the matching records in both sets:
matchList = setA & setB

#If you want to know the items of A that are not in B:
missing = setA - setB

#If you want to know all the discrepancies
discrepancies = setA ^ setB