How to do a deep comparison between 2 objects with lodash?

An easy and elegant solution is to use _.isEqual, which performs a deep comparison:

var a = {};
var b = {};

a.prop1 = 2;
a.prop2 = { prop3: 2 };

b.prop1 = 2;
b.prop2 = { prop3: 3 };

console.log(_.isEqual(a, b)); // returns false if different

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>

However, this solution doesn't show which property is different.

For anyone stumbling upon this thread, here's a more complete solution. It will compare two objects and give you the key of all properties that are either only in object1, only in object2, or are both in object1 and object2 but have different values:

/*
 * Compare two objects by reducing an array of keys in obj1, having the
 * keys in obj2 as the intial value of the result. Key points:
 *
 * - All keys of obj2 are initially in the result.
 *
 * - If the loop finds a key (from obj1, remember) not in obj2, it adds
 *   it to the result.
 *
 * - If the loop finds a key that are both in obj1 and obj2, it compares
 *   the value. If it's the same value, the key is removed from the result.
 */
function getObjectDiff(obj1, obj2) {
    const diff = Object.keys(obj1).reduce((result, key) => {
        if (!obj2.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
            result.push(key);
        } else if (_.isEqual(obj1[key], obj2[key])) {
            const resultKeyIndex = result.indexOf(key);
            result.splice(resultKeyIndex, 1);
        }
        return result;
    }, Object.keys(obj2));

    return diff;
}

Here's an example output:

// Test
let obj1 = {
    a: 1,
    b: 2,
    c: { foo: 1, bar: 2},
    d: { baz: 1, bat: 2 }
}

let obj2 = {
    b: 2, 
    c: { foo: 1, bar: 'monkey'}, 
    d: { baz: 1, bat: 2 }
    e: 1
}
getObjectDiff(obj1, obj2)
// ["c", "e", "a"]

If you don't care about nested objects and want to skip lodash, you can substitute the _.isEqual for a normal value comparison, e.g. obj1[key] === obj2[key].

If you need to know which properties are different, use reduce():

_.reduce(a, function(result, value, key) {
    return _.isEqual(value, b[key]) ?
        result : result.concat(key);
}, []);
// → [ "prop2" ]

Based on the answer by Adam Boduch, I wrote this function which compares two objects in the deepest possible sense, returning paths that have different values as well as paths missing from one or the other object.

The code was not written with efficiency in mind, and improvements in that regard are most welcome, but here is the basic form:

var compare = function (a, b) {

  var result = {
    different: [],
    missing_from_first: [],
    missing_from_second: []
  };

  _.reduce(a, function (result, value, key) {
    if (b.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      if (_.isEqual(value, b[key])) {
        return result;
      } else {
        if (typeof (a[key]) != typeof ({}) || typeof (b[key]) != typeof ({})) {
          //dead end.
          result.different.push(key);
          return result;
        } else {
          var deeper = compare(a[key], b[key]);
          result.different = result.different.concat(_.map(deeper.different, (sub_path) => {
            return key + "." + sub_path;
          }));

          result.missing_from_second = result.missing_from_second.concat(_.map(deeper.missing_from_second, (sub_path) => {
            return key + "." + sub_path;
          }));

          result.missing_from_first = result.missing_from_first.concat(_.map(deeper.missing_from_first, (sub_path) => {
            return key + "." + sub_path;
          }));
          return result;
        }
      }
    } else {
      result.missing_from_second.push(key);
      return result;
    }
  }, result);

  _.reduce(b, function (result, value, key) {
    if (a.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      return result;
    } else {
      result.missing_from_first.push(key);
      return result;
    }
  }, result);

  return result;
}

You can try the code using this snippet (running in full page mode is recommended):

var compare = function (a, b) {

  var result = {
    different: [],
    missing_from_first: [],
    missing_from_second: []
  };

  _.reduce(a, function (result, value, key) {
    if (b.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      if (_.isEqual(value, b[key])) {
        return result;
      } else {
        if (typeof (a[key]) != typeof ({}) || typeof (b[key]) != typeof ({})) {
          //dead end.
          result.different.push(key);
          return result;
        } else {
          var deeper = compare(a[key], b[key]);
          result.different = result.different.concat(_.map(deeper.different, (sub_path) => {
            return key + "." + sub_path;
          }));

          result.missing_from_second = result.missing_from_second.concat(_.map(deeper.missing_from_second, (sub_path) => {
            return key + "." + sub_path;
          }));

          result.missing_from_first = result.missing_from_first.concat(_.map(deeper.missing_from_first, (sub_path) => {
            return key + "." + sub_path;
          }));
          return result;
        }
      }
    } else {
      result.missing_from_second.push(key);
      return result;
    }
  }, result);

  _.reduce(b, function (result, value, key) {
    if (a.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      return result;
    } else {
      result.missing_from_first.push(key);
      return result;
    }
  }, result);

  return result;
}

var a_editor = new JSONEditor($('#a')[0], {
  name: 'a',
  mode: 'code'
});
var b_editor = new JSONEditor($('#b')[0], {
  name: 'b',
  mode: 'code'
});

var a = {
  same: 1,
  different: 2,
  missing_from_b: 3,
  missing_nested_from_b: {
    x: 1,
    y: 2
  },
  nested: {
    same: 1,
    different: 2,
    missing_from_b: 3
  }
}

var b = {
  same: 1,
  different: 99,
  missing_from_a: 3,
  missing_nested_from_a: {
    x: 1,
    y: 2
  },
  nested: {
    same: 1,
    different: 99,
    missing_from_a: 3
  }
}

a_editor.set(a);
b_editor.set(b);

var result_editor = new JSONEditor($('#result')[0], {
  name: 'result',
  mode: 'view'
});

var do_compare = function() {
  var a = a_editor.get();
  var b = b_editor.get();
  result_editor.set(compare(a, b));
}

#objects {} #objects section {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}
#objects section h1 {
  background: #444;
  color: white;
  font-family: monospace;
  display: inline-block;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 5px;
}
.jsoneditor-outer, .ace_editor {
min-height: 230px !important;
}
button:hover {
  background: orangered;
}
button {
  cursor: pointer;
  background: red;
  color: white;
  text-align: left;
  font-weight: bold;
  border: 5px solid crimson;
  outline: 0;
  padding: 10px;
  margin: 10px 0px;
}

<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jsoneditor/5.5.10/jsoneditor.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jsoneditor/5.5.10/jsoneditor.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="objects">
  <section>
    <h1>a (first object)</h1>
    <div id="a"></div>
  </section>
  <section>
    <h1>b (second object)</h1>
    <div id="b"></div>
  </section>
  <button onClick="do_compare()">compare</button>
  <section>
    <h1>result</h1>
    <div id="result"></div>
  </section>
</div>