Make diff() account for member order in ordered_json objects

diff() compared source/target objects purely by key set, ignoring
relative member order. For ordered_json (insertion-ordered, vector-
backed object_t), two objects that differ only in member order are
unequal via operator==, but diff() never emitted any patch operation
to fix the order, so source.patch(diff(source, target)) == target
could fail to hold.

Fix by detecting when common keys appear in a different relative
order in source vs. target (or when a new key would need to land
somewhere other than the end), and in that case removing and
re-adding the affected keys in target's order, which relies on
patch()'s "add" op appending new keys at the end of an ordered_map.
For plain json (std::map-backed, always key-sorted iteration) this
is a no-op and the original minimal per-key diff path is unchanged.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
This commit is contained in:
Niels Lohmann
2026-09-05 16:54:49 +02:00
parent 3678634bf2
commit 221dcf814c
3 changed files with 327 additions and 30 deletions
+81
View File
@@ -81,3 +81,84 @@ TEST_CASE("regression test for issue #3732 - iteration_proxy_value<iter_impl<ord
};
static_cast<void>(fn);
}
TEST_CASE("regression test - diff() must account for ordered_json member order")
{
SECTION("pure reorder, no value changes")
{
ordered_json a = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 2}};
ordered_json b = {{"b", 2}, {"a", 1}};
CHECK(a != b); // order-sensitive equality
CHECK(a.patch(ordered_json::diff(a, b)) == b);
}
SECTION("new key must land at the front")
{
ordered_json c = {{"b", 2}};
ordered_json e = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 2}};
CHECK(c.patch(ordered_json::diff(c, e)) == e);
}
SECTION("reorder plus a value change on one of the reordered keys")
{
ordered_json a = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 2}};
ordered_json b = {{"b", 20}, {"a", 1}};
CHECK(a != b);
CHECK(a.patch(ordered_json::diff(a, b)) == b);
}
SECTION("reorder plus a deleted key")
{
ordered_json a = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 2}, {"c", 3}};
ordered_json b = {{"b", 2}, {"a", 1}};
CHECK(a != b);
CHECK(a.patch(ordered_json::diff(a, b)) == b);
}
SECTION("reorder plus a nested value that itself needs a recursive diff")
{
ordered_json a = {{"a", {{"x", 1}, {"y", 2}}}, {"b", 2}};
ordered_json b = {{"b", 2}, {"a", {{"x", 1}, {"y", 99}}}};
CHECK(a != b);
CHECK(a.patch(ordered_json::diff(a, b)) == b);
}
SECTION("three or more keys shuffled into a different order")
{
ordered_json a = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 2}, {"c", 3}, {"d", 4}};
ordered_json b = {{"d", 4}, {"b", 2}, {"a", 1}, {"c", 3}};
CHECK(a != b);
CHECK(a.patch(ordered_json::diff(a, b)) == b);
}
SECTION("matching order still produces a minimal patch (fast path unaffected)")
{
ordered_json a = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 2}, {"c", 3}};
ordered_json b = {{"a", 1}, {"b", 20}, {"c", 3}};
auto p = ordered_json::diff(a, b);
// only the changed value should be touched, not a wholesale remove+add
CHECK(p.size() == 1);
CHECK(p[0]["op"] == "replace");
CHECK(p[0]["path"] == "/b");
CHECK(a.patch(p) == b);
}
SECTION("plain json (std::map-backed) is unaffected by same-key-different-insertion-order")
{
json a;
a["b"] = 2;
a["a"] = 1;
json b;
b["a"] = 1;
b["b"] = 2;
// std::map iteration is always sorted by key, so a == b regardless of
// insertion order, and diff() must still produce the same minimal
// (empty) result as before this fix
CHECK(a == b);
auto p = json::diff(a, b);
CHECK(p.empty());
CHECK(a.patch(p) == b);
}
}