The complement is the mathematical term for what I'm looking for, but for context and possibly more targeted solution: I have hash A, which can have nested hashes (i.e. they're N-dimensional), and I apply to it a process (over which I have no control) which returns hash B, which is hash A with some elements removed. From there on, I am trying to find the elements in A which have been removed in B.
For example: (note that I use symbols for simplicity. Keys will always be symbols, but values won't.)
a = {:a => :b,
:c => {:d => :e, :f => :g},
:h => :i,
:j => {:k => :l, :m => :n},
:o => {:p => :q, :r => :s},
:t => :u}
b = {:h => :i,
:j => {:k => :l, :m => :n},
:o => {:r => :s},
:t => :u}
complement(a,b)
#=> {:a => :b,
# :c => {:d => :e, :f => :g},
# :o => {:p => :q}}
What is the best (ruby-esque) way of doing this?
Came up with this
a = {a: "thing", b: [1,2,3], c:2}
b = {a: "thing", b: [1,2,3]}
c= {}
a.each do |k, v|
c[k] = v unless b[k]
end
p c
EDIT: Now checking nested hashes. But yes, there should be some better ruby way to do this.
def check_deleted(a, b)
c = Hash.new
a.each do |k, v|
if ! b.has_key? k
c[k] = v
elsif b[k].is_a? Hash
c[k] = check_deleted(v, b[k])
end
end
c
end
a = {a: "thing", b: [1,2,3], c:2, d: {e: 1, r:2}}
b = {a: "thing", b: [1,2,3], d: {r:2}}
p check_deleted(a,b) #=> {:c=>2, :d=>{:e=>1}}