jpprint

Side-by-side JSON comparison tool with color-coded diff indicators.

Features

• Side-by-side comparison with intelligent line alignment
• Color-coded diffs: Red (deletions), Green (additions), Yellow (modifications)
• Unicode box-drawing with beautiful visual separators (│ and ◆)
• Pure Python - no external dependencies, stdlib only
• Python 3.10+ with modern type hints

Installation

pip install jpprint

Quick Start

from jpprint import jpprint

base = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "NYC"}
updated = {"name": "Alice", "age": 31, "city": "Boston"}

jpprint(base, updated)

Output (with colors and Unicode box characters):

{                          │     {
    "age": 30,             ◆         "age": 31,
    "city": "NYC",         ◆         "city": "Boston",
    "name": "Alice"        │         "name": "Alice"
}                          │     }

Usage

from jpprint import jpprint

# Compare two JSON objects
left = {"a": "b", "c": "d"}
right = {"a": "b", "c": "changed"}
jpprint(left, right)

# Format single object
jpprint({"user": "alice", "role": "admin"})

# Return as list instead of printing
output = jpprint(left, right, retr=True)

# Show only differences
jpprint(left, right, diff_only=True)

# Disable colors for plain text
jpprint(left, right, use_colors=False)

# Use ASCII characters instead of Unicode
jpprint(left, right, use_box_chars=False)

# Disable intelligent alignment
jpprint(left, right, align_lines=False)

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
align_lines	bool	True	Intelligently align matching lines using difflib
diff_ind	str	<>	Indicator for different lines (ignored if use_box_chars=True)
diff_only	bool	False	Show only lines that differ
indent	int	4	JSON indentation spaces
max_width	int	None	Truncate lines to max width
retr	bool	False	Return output instead of printing
separator	str	|	Column separator for equal lines (ignored if use_box_chars=True)
show_ln	bool	False	Display line numbers
use_box_chars	bool	True	Use Unicode box-drawing characters (│, ◆)
use_colors	bool	True	Enable/disable color output

Advanced Examples

Comparing API Responses

import requests
from jpprint import jpprint

v1 = requests.get("https://api.example.com/v1/user/123").json()
v2 = requests.get("https://api.example.com/v2/user/123").json()

jpprint(v1, v2)

Nested JSON Structures

config_old = {
    "database": {"host": "localhost", "port": 5432},
    "cache": {"enabled": True}
}

config_new = {
    "database": {"host": "db.example.com", "port": 5432},
    "cache": {"enabled": True, "ttl": 3600}
}

jpprint(config_old, config_new)

Datetime and UUID Support

from datetime import datetime
import uuid

data = {
    "user": "alice",
    "id": uuid.uuid4(),
    "created_at": datetime(2024, 1, 1, 12, 0, 0)
}

jpprint(data)
# Automatically converts datetime to ISO format and UUID to string

How It Works

jpprint uses Python's difflib.SequenceMatcher to intelligently align matching lines side-by-side, making it easy to spot additions, deletions, and modifications in JSON data. Color coding and Unicode box characters provide clear visual indicators of changes.

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/voidnologo/jpprint.git
cd jpprint
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Tests

python run_tests.py

Code Quality

ruff format .  # Format code
ruff check .   # Check linting
isort .        # Sort imports

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or higher
• No external runtime dependencies

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.