How to keep keys values in same order as declared

Question

I have a dictionary that I declared in a particular order and want to keep it in that order all the time. The keys/values can't really be kept in order based on their value, I just want it in the order that I declared it.

So if I have the dictionary:

d = {'ac': 33, 'gw': 20, 'ap': 102, 'za': 321, 'bs': 10}

It isn't in that order if I view it or iterate through it, is there any way to make sure Python will keep the explicit order that I declared the keys/values in?

Answer 1

You can't really do what you want with a dictionary. You already have the dictionary d = {'ac':33, 'gw':20, 'ap':102, 'za':321, 'bs':10}created. I found there was no way to keep in order once it is already created. What I did was make a json file instead with the object:

{"ac":33,"gw":20,"ap":102,"za":321,"bs":10}

I used:

r = json.load(open('file.json'), object_pairs_hook=OrderedDict)

then used:

print json.dumps(r)

to verify.