java - Common algorithm for generating a diff of the fields in two beans?

Question

Let's say you have two instances of the same bean type, and you'd like to display a summary of what has changed between the two instances - for example, you have a bean representing a user's settings in your application, and you'd like to be able to display a list of what has changed in the new settings the user is submitting (instance #1) versus what is stored already for the user (instance #2).

Is there a commonly used algorithm or design pattern for a task such as this, perhaps something that can be abstracted and re-used for different types of beans? (I'm having a hard time thinking of a good name for this type of problem to know what to Google on). I've checked commons-beanutils and nothing popped out at me.

Answer 1

If you are talking about comparing values, I would consider using reflection and just comparing them field by field.

Something like this:

    Field[] oldFields = oldInstance.class.getDeclaredFields();
    Field[] newFields = newInstance.class.getDeclaredFields();
    StringBuilder changes = new StringBuilder();

    Arrays.sort(oldFields);
    Arrays.sort(newFields);

    int i = 0;
    for(Field f : oldFields)
    {
       if(!f.equals(newFields[i]))
       {
          changes.append(f.getName()).append(" has changed.
");
       }
       i++;
    }

This code hasn't been tested. You might need to get the values in the fields and compare them instead of just comparing fields to each other, but it should work in theory.