Reordered arrays can turn positional JSON diffs into noise. Identity inference offers a cleaner-but surprisingly difficult-alternative.
Change one field in a JSON object, then reorder the surrounding array. A diff can suddenly report that nearly every record changed.
Many JSON diff tools compare arrays by position. That is exactly right for arrays whose order carries meaning. But when an array represents a collection of records, positional matching can produce a surprising amount of noise.
Consider these two payloads:
Original
{
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