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jest-diff
Display differences clearly so people can review changes confidently.
The default export serializes JavaScript values, compares them line-by-line, and returns a string which includes comparison lines.
Two named exports compare strings character-by-character:
diffStringsUnified
returns a string.diffStringsRaw
returns an array ofDiff
objects.
Three named exports compare arrays of strings line-by-line:
diffLinesUnified
anddiffLinesUnified2
return a string.diffLinesRaw
returns an array ofDiff
objects.
Installation
To add this package as a dependency of a project, run either of the following commands:
npm install jest-diff
yarn add jest-diff
Usage of default export
Given JavaScript values, diffDefault(a, b, options?)
does the following:
- serialize the values as strings using the
pretty-format
package - compare the strings line-by-line using the
diff-sequences
package - format the changed or common lines using the
chalk
package
To use this function, write either of the following:
const diffDefault = require('jest-diff').default;
in CommonJS modulesimport diffDefault from 'jest-diff';
in ECMAScript modules
Example of default export
const a = ['delete', 'common', 'changed from'];
const b = ['common', 'changed to', 'insert'];
const difference = diffDefault(a, b);
The returned string consists of:
- annotation lines: describe the two change indicators with labels, and a blank line
- comparison lines: similar to “unified” view on GitHub, but
Expected
lines are green,Received
lines are red, and common lines are dim (by default, see Options)
- Expected
+ Received
Array [
- "delete",
"common",
- "changed from",
+ "changed to",
+ "insert",
]
Edge cases of default export
Here are edge cases for the return value:
' Comparing two different types of values. …'
if the arguments have different types according to thejest-get-type
package (instances of different classes have the same'object'
type)'Compared values have no visual difference.'
if the arguments have either referential identity according toObject.is
method or same serialization according to thepretty-format
packagenull
if either argument is a so-called asymmetric matcher in Jasmine or Jest
Usage of diffStringsUnified
Given strings, diffStringsUnified(a, b, options?)
does the following:
- compare the strings character-by-character using the
diff-sequences
package - clean up small (often coincidental) common substrings, also known as chaff
- format the changed or common lines using the
chalk
package
Although the function is mainly for multiline strings, it compares any strings.
Write either of the following:
const {diffStringsUnified} = require('jest-diff');
in CommonJS modulesimport {diffStringsUnified} from 'jest-diff';
in ECMAScript modules
Example of diffStringsUnified
const a = 'common\nchanged from';
const b = 'common\nchanged to';
const difference = diffStringsUnified(a, b);
The returned string consists of:
- annotation lines: describe the two change indicators with labels, and a blank line
- comparison lines: similar to “unified” view on GitHub, and changed substrings have inverse foreground and background colors (that is,
from
has white-on-green andto
has white-on-red, which the following example does not show)
- Expected
+ Received
common
- changed from
+ changed to
Performance of diffStringsUnified
To get the benefit of changed substrings within the comparison lines, a character-by-character comparison has a higher computational cost (in time and space) than a line-by-line comparison.
If the input strings can have arbitrary length, we recommend that the calling code set a limit, beyond which splits the strings, and then calls diffLinesUnified
instead. For example, Jest falls back to line-by-line comparison if either string has length greater than 20K characters.
Usage of diffLinesUnified
Given arrays of strings, diffLinesUnified(aLines, bLines, options?)
does the following:
- compare the arrays line-by-line using the
diff-sequences
package - format the changed or common lines using the
chalk
package
You might call this function when strings have been split into lines and you do not need to see changed substrings within lines.
Example of diffLinesUnified
const aLines = ['delete', 'common', 'changed from'];
const bLines = ['common', 'changed to', 'insert'];
const difference = diffLinesUnified(aLines, bLines);
- Expected
+ Received
- delete
common
- changed from
+ changed to
+ insert
Edge cases of diffLinesUnified or diffStringsUnified
Here are edge cases for arguments and return values:
- both
a
andb
are empty strings: no comparison lines - only
a
is empty string: all comparison lines havebColor
andbIndicator
(see Options) - only
b
is empty string: all comparison lines haveaColor
andaIndicator
(see Options) a
andb
are equal non-empty strings: all comparison lines havecommonColor
andcommonIndicator
(see Options)
Usage of diffLinesUnified2
Given two pairs of arrays of strings, diffLinesUnified2(aLinesDisplay, bLinesDisplay, aLinesCompare, bLinesCompare, options?)
does the following:
- compare the pair of
Compare
arrays line-by-line using thediff-sequences
package - format the corresponding lines in the pair of
Display
arrays using thechalk
package
Jest calls this function to consider lines as common instead of changed if the only difference is indentation.
You might call this function for case insensitive or Unicode equivalence comparison of lines.
Example of diffLinesUnified2
import format from 'pretty-format';
const a = {
text: 'Ignore indentation in serialized object',
time: '2019-09-19T12:34:56.000Z',
type: 'CREATE_ITEM',
};
const b = {
payload: {
text: 'Ignore indentation in serialized object',
time: '2019-09-19T12:34:56.000Z',
},
type: 'CREATE_ITEM',
};
const difference = diffLinesUnified2(
// serialize with indentation to display lines
format(a).split('\n'),
format(b).split('\n'),
// serialize without indentation to compare lines
format(a, {indent: 0}).split('\n'),
format(b, {indent: 0}).split('\n'),
);
The text
and time
properties are common, because their only difference is indentation:
- Expected
+ Received
Object {
+ payload: Object {
text: 'Ignore indentation in serialized object',
time: '2019-09-19T12:34:56.000Z',
+ },
type: 'CREATE_ITEM',
}
The preceding example illustrates why (at least for indentation) it seems more intuitive that the function returns the common line from the bLinesDisplay
array instead of from the aLinesDisplay
array.
Usage of diffStringsRaw
Given strings and a boolean option, diffStringsRaw(a, b, cleanup)
does the following:
- compare the strings character-by-character using the
diff-sequences
package - optionally clean up small (often coincidental) common substrings, also known as chaff
Because diffStringsRaw
returns the difference as data instead of a string, you can format it as your application requires (for example, enclosed in HTML markup for browser instead of escape sequences for console).
The returned array describes substrings as instances of the Diff
class, which calling code can access like array tuples:
The value at index 0
is one of the following:
value | named export | description |
---|---|---|
0 |
DIFF_EQUAL |
in a and in b |
-1 |
DIFF_DELETE |
in a but not in b |
1 |
DIFF_INSERT |
in b but not in a |
The value at index 1
is a substring of a
or b
or both.
Example of diffStringsRaw with cleanup
const diffs = diffStringsRaw('changed from', 'changed to', true);
i |
diffs[i][0] |
diffs[i][1] |
---|---|---|
0 |
0 |
'changed ' |
1 |
-1 |
'from' |
2 |
1 |
'to' |
Example of diffStringsRaw without cleanup
const diffs = diffStringsRaw('changed from', 'changed to', false);
i |
diffs[i][0] |
diffs[i][1] |
---|---|---|
0 |
0 |
'changed ' |
1 |
-1 |
'fr' |
2 |
1 |
't' |
3 |
0 |
'o' |
4 |
-1 |
'm' |
Advanced import for diffStringsRaw
Here are all the named imports that you might need for the diffStringsRaw
function:
const {DIFF_DELETE, DIFF_EQUAL, DIFF_INSERT, Diff, diffStringsRaw} = require('jest-diff');
in CommonJS modulesimport {DIFF_DELETE, DIFF_EQUAL, DIFF_INSERT, Diff, diffStringsRaw} from 'jest-diff';
in ECMAScript modules
To write a formatting function, you might need the named constants (and Diff
in TypeScript annotations).
If you write an application-specific cleanup algorithm, then you might need to call the Diff
constructor:
const diffCommon = new Diff(DIFF_EQUAL, 'changed ');
const diffDelete = new Diff(DIFF_DELETE, 'from');
const diffInsert = new Diff(DIFF_INSERT, 'to');
Usage of diffLinesRaw
Given arrays of strings, diffLinesRaw(aLines, bLines)
does the following:
- compare the arrays line-by-line using the
diff-sequences
package
Because diffLinesRaw
returns the difference as data instead of a string, you can format it as your application requires.
Example of diffLinesRaw
const aLines = ['delete', 'common', 'changed from'];
const bLines = ['common', 'changed to', 'insert'];
const diffs = diffLinesRaw(aLines, bLines);
i |
diffs[i][0] |
diffs[i][1] |
---|---|---|
0 |
-1 |
'delete' |
1 |
0 |
'common' |
2 |
-1 |
'changed from' |
3 |
1 |
'changed to' |
4 |
1 |
'insert' |
Edge case of diffLinesRaw
If you call string.split('\n')
for an empty string:
- the result is
['']
an array which contains an empty string - instead of
[]
an empty array
Depending of your application, you might call diffLinesRaw
with either array.
Example of split method
import {diffLinesRaw} from 'jest-diff';
const a = 'non-empty string';
const b = '';
const diffs = diffLinesRaw(a.split('\n'), b.split('\n'));
i |
diffs[i][0] |
diffs[i][1] |
---|---|---|
0 |
-1 |
'non-empty string' |
1 |
1 |
'' |
Which you might format as follows:
- Expected - 1
+ Received + 1
- non-empty string
+
Example of splitLines0 function
For edge case behavior like the diffLinesUnified
function, you might define a splitLines0
function, which given an empty string, returns []
an empty array:
export const splitLines0 = string =>
string.length === 0 ? [] : string.split('\n');
import {diffLinesRaw} from 'jest-diff';
const a = '';
const b = 'line 1\nline 2\nline 3';
const diffs = diffLinesRaw(a.split('\n'), b.split('\n'));
i |
diffs[i][0] |
diffs[i][1] |
---|---|---|
0 |
1 |
'line 1' |
1 |
1 |
'line 2' |
2 |
1 |
'line 3' |
Which you might format as follows:
- Expected - 0
+ Received + 3
+ line 1
+ line 2
+ line 3
In contrast to the diffLinesRaw
function, the diffLinesUnified
and diffLinesUnified2
functions automatically convert array arguments computed by string split
method, so callers do not need a splitLine0
function.
Options
The default options are for the report when an assertion fails from the expect
package used by Jest.
For other applications, you can provide an options object as a third argument:
diffDefault(a, b, options)
diffStringsUnified(a, b, options)
diffLinesUnified(aLines, bLines, options)
diffLinesUnified2(aLinesDisplay, bLinesDisplay, aLinesCompare, bLinesCompare, options)
Properties of options object
name | default |
---|---|
aAnnotation |
'Expected' |
aColor |
chalk.green |
aIndicator |
'-' |
bAnnotation |
'Received' |
bColor |
chalk.red |
bIndicator |
'+' |
changeColor |
chalk.inverse |
changeLineTrailingSpaceColor |
string => string |
commonColor |
chalk.dim |
commonIndicator |
' ' |
commonLineTrailingSpaceColor |
string => string |
contextLines |
5 |
emptyFirstOrLastLinePlaceholder |
'' |
expand |
true |
includeChangeCounts |
false |
omitAnnotationLines |
false |
patchColor |
chalk.yellow |
For more information about the options, see the following examples.
Example of options for labels
If the application is code modification, you might replace the labels:
const options = {
aAnnotation: 'Original',
bAnnotation: 'Modified',
};
- Original
+ Modified
common
- changed from
+ changed to
The jest-diff
package does not assume that the 2 labels have equal length.
Example of options for colors of changed lines
For consistency with most diff tools, you might exchange the colors:
import chalk = require('chalk');
const options = {
aColor: chalk.red,
bColor: chalk.green,
};
Example of option for color of changed substrings
Although the default inverse of foreground and background colors is hard to beat for changed substrings within lines, especially because it highlights spaces, if you want bold font weight on yellow background color:
import chalk = require('chalk');
const options = {
changeColor: chalk.bold.bgYellowBright,
};
Example of option to format trailing spaces
Because the default export does not display substring differences within lines, formatting can help you see when lines differ by the presence or absence of trailing spaces found by /\s+$/
regular expression.
- If change lines have a background color, then you can see trailing spaces.
- If common lines have default dim color, then you cannot see trailing spaces. You might want yellowish background color to see them.
const options = {
aColor: chalk.rgb(128, 0, 128).bgRgb(255, 215, 255), // magenta
bColor: chalk.rgb(0, 95, 0).bgRgb(215, 255, 215), // green
commonLineTrailingSpaceColor: chalk.bgYellow,
};
The value of a Color option is a function, which given a string, returns a string.
If you want to replace trailing spaces with middle dot characters:
const replaceSpacesWithMiddleDot = string => '·'.repeat(string.length);
const options = {
changeLineTrailingSpaceColor: replaceSpacesWithMiddleDot,
commonLineTrailingSpaceColor: replaceSpacesWithMiddleDot,
};
If you need the TypeScript type of a Color option:
import {DiffOptionsColor} from 'jest-diff';
Example of options for no colors
To store the difference in a file without escape codes for colors, provide an identity function:
const noColor = string => string;
const options = {
aColor: noColor,
bColor: noColor,
changeColor: noColor,
commonColor: noColor,
patchColor: noColor,
};
Example of options for indicators
For consistency with the diff
command, you might replace the indicators:
const options = {
aIndicator: '<',
bIndicator: '>',
};
The jest-diff
package assumes (but does not enforce) that the 3 indicators have equal length.
Example of options to limit common lines
By default, the output includes all common lines.
To emphasize the changes, you might limit the number of common “context” lines:
const options = {
contextLines: 1,
expand: false,
};
A patch mark like @@ -12,7 +12,9 @@
accounts for omitted common lines.
Example of option for color of patch marks
If you want patch marks to have the same dim color as common lines:
import chalk = require('chalk');
const options = {
expand: false,
patchColor: chalk.dim,
};
Example of option to include change counts
To display the number of changed lines at the right of annotation lines:
const a = ['common', 'changed from'];
const b = ['common', 'changed to', 'insert'];
const options = {
includeChangeCounts: true,
};
const difference = diffDefault(a, b, options);
- Expected - 1
+ Received + 2
Array [
"common",
- "changed from",
+ "changed to",
+ "insert",
]
Example of option to omit annotation lines
To display only the comparison lines:
const a = 'common\nchanged from';
const b = 'common\nchanged to';
const options = {
omitAnnotationLines: true,
};
const difference = diffStringsUnified(a, b, options);
common
- changed from
+ changed to
Example of option for empty first or last lines
If the first or last comparison line is empty, because the content is empty and the indicator is a space, you might not notice it.
The replacement option is a string whose default value is ''
empty string.
Because Jest trims the report when a matcher fails, it deletes an empty last line.
Therefore, Jest uses as placeholder the downwards arrow with corner leftwards:
const options = {
emptyFirstOrLastLinePlaceholder: '↵', // U+21B5
};
If a content line is empty, then the corresponding comparison line is automatically trimmed to remove the margin space (represented as a middle dot below) for the default indicators:
Indicator | untrimmed | trimmed |
---|---|---|
aIndicator |
'-·' |
'-' |
bIndicator |
'+·' |
'+' |
commonIndicator |
' ·' |
'' |