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CSV Comparator

The CSVComparator compares two CSV files for equivalence and provides detailed difference reports.

Basic Usage​

from satif_sdk.comparators import CSVComparator

comparator = CSVComparator()

result = comparator.compare(
    file_path1="file1.csv",
    file_path2="file2.csv",
    ignore_row_order=True,
    check_header_case=False
)

print(f"Files equivalent: {result['are_equivalent']}")
for message in result['summary']:
    print(f"- {message}")

Parameters​

  • ignore_row_order: Compare content regardless of row order (default: True)
  • check_header_order: Require headers in same order (default: True)
  • check_header_case: Case-sensitive header comparison (default: True)
  • strip_whitespace: Remove leading/trailing whitespace (default: True)
  • delimiter: CSV delimiter, auto-detected if None (default: None)
  • encoding: File encoding (default: "utf-8")
  • decimal_places: Decimal precision for float comparison (default: 2)
  • max_examples: Maximum difference examples in report (default: 5)
  • check_structure_only: Compare only headers, ignore row data (default: False)

Output Structure​

{
    "files": {"file1": "path1.csv", "file2": "path2.csv"},
    "comparison_params": { ... },
    "are_equivalent": bool,
    "summary": ["High-level findings..."],
    "details": {
        "errors": ["Any read errors..."],
        "header_comparison": {
            "result": "Identical|Different names|...",
            "diff": ["Specific differences..."]
        },
        "row_comparison": {
            "result": "Identical content|Different content|...",
            "row_count1": 100,
            "row_count2": 95,
            "unique_rows1": [[row_data], ...],
            "unique_rows2": [[row_data], ...],
            "count_diffs": [{"row": [data], "count1": 2, "count2": 1}, ...]
        }
    }
}

Common Use Cases​

Structure-only comparison:

result = comparator.compare("file1.csv", "file2.csv", check_structure_only=True)

Content comparison ignoring order:

result = comparator.compare(
    "file1.csv", "file2.csv",
    ignore_row_order=True,
    check_header_order=False
)

Strict ordered comparison:

result = comparator.compare(
    "file1.csv", "file2.csv",
    ignore_row_order=False,
    check_header_order=True
)