How can I combine two JSON objects with Rust?

Question

I have two JSON files:

Json 1

{
  "title": "This is a title",
  "person" : {
    "firstName" : "John",
    "lastName" : "Doe"
  },
  "cities":[ "london", "paris" ]
}

Json 2

{
  "title": "This is another title",
  "person" : {
    "firstName" : "Jane"
  },
  "cities":[ "colombo" ]
}

I want to combine # 2 with C # 1, where # 2 overrides # 1, producing the following output:

{
  "title": "This is another title",
  "person" : {
    "firstName" : "Jane",
    "lastName" : "Doe"
  },
  "cities":[ "colombo" ]
}

I checked the crate json patch that does this, but it does not compile with stable Rust. Is it possible to do something similar with something like serde_json and stable Rust?

Answer 1

Posting the answer suggested by Shepmaster below

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_json;

use serde_json::Value;

fn merge(a: &mut Value, b: Value) {
    match (a, b) {
        (a @ &mut Value::Object(_), Value::Object(b)) => {
            let a = a.as_object_mut().unwrap();
            for (k, v) in b {
                merge(a.entry(k).or_insert(Value::Null), v);
            }
        }
        (a, b) => *a = b,
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut a = json!({
        "title": "This is a title",
        "person" : {
            "firstName" : "John",
            "lastName" : "Doe"
        },
        "cities":[ "london", "paris" ]
    });

    let b = json!({
        "title": "This is another title",
        "person" : {
            "firstName" : "Jane"
        },
        "cities":[ "colombo" ]
    });

    merge(&mut a, b);
    println!("{:#}", a);
}

Answer 2

It worked for me

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_json;

use serde_json::Value;

fn merge(a: &mut Value, b: &Value) {
    match (a, b) {
        (&mut Value::Object(ref mut a), &Value::Object(ref b)) => {
            for (k, v) in b {
                merge(a.entry(k.clone()).or_insert(Value::Null), v);
            }
        }
        (a, b) => {
            *a = b.clone();
        }
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut a = json!({
        "title": "This is a title",
        "person" : {
            "firstName" : "John",
            "lastName" : "Doe"
        },
        "cities":[ "london", "paris" ]
    });

    let b = json!({
        "title": "This is another title",
        "person" : {
            "firstName" : "Jane"
        },
        "cities":[ "colombo" ]
    });

    merge(&mut a, &b);
    println!("{:#}", a);
}

Answer 3

json-patch, , JSON Merge Patch (RFC 7396), . , null, .

The code that explains this is below. I changed the patch to remove the key person.lastName, setting it to nullas a demo. Also, do not need unwrap()on Option, returned as_object_mut().

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_json;

use serde_json::Value;

fn merge(a: &mut Value, b: Value) {
    if let Value::Object(a) = a {
        if let Value::Object(b) = b {
            for (k, v) in b {
                if v.is_null() {
                    a.remove(&k);
                }
                else {
                    merge(a.entry(k).or_insert(Value::Null), v);
                }
            } 

            return;
        }
    }

    *a = b;
}

fn main() {
    let mut a = json!({
        "title": "This is a title",
        "person" : {
            "firstName" : "John",
            "lastName" : "Doe"
        },
        "cities":[ "london", "paris" ]
    });

    let b = json!({
        "title": "This is another title",
        "person" : {
            "firstName" : "Jane",
            "lastName": null
        },
        "cities":[ "colombo" ]
    });

    merge(&mut a, b);
    println!("{:#}", a);
}

Expected Result

{
  "cities": [
    "colombo"
  ],
  "person": {
    "firstName": "Jane"
  },
  "title": "This is a title"
}

Please note that person.lastNamenot installed.