Python, checksum of a dict

user_368230 0
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I'm thinking to create a checksum of a dict to know if it was modified or not For the moment i have that:

>>> import hashlib
>>> import pickle
>>> d = {'k': 'v', 'k2': 'v2'}
>>> z = pickle.dumps(d)
>>> hashlib.md5(z).hexdigest()
'8521955ed8c63c554744058c9888dc30'

Perhaps a better solution exists?

Note: I want to create an unique id of a dict to create a good Etag.

EDIT: I can have abstract data in the dict.

checksum python
6 Answers

I would recommend an approach very similar to the one your propose, but with some extra guarantees:

import hashlib, json
hashlib.md5(json.dumps(d, sort_keys=True, ensure_ascii=True).encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
  • sort_keys=True: keep the same hash if the order of your keys changes
  • ensure_ascii=True: in case you have some non-ascii characters, to make sure the representation does not change

We use this for our ETag.

user_20829640
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