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Sort dictionary

Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more effectively.

Sometimes you might need use a dictionary but still be able to sort it by value. There are many ways to accomplish this task and I would like to discuss one of the ways we are using here at Walden Systems, because we believe this is the most straightforward method to sort a dictionary. We will be using the OrderedDict type which keeps items in the order in which they were added.

Strategy to sort a dictionary is fairly simple: First, we need to iterate through the dictionary in sorted order using one of the built in methods. Second, we need to create a new ordered dictionary to store the the sorted items. Third, we need to add items to the new, ordered dictionary in sorted order.

Here are actual code samples:

The first thing you need to do is import the OrderedDict library with the following line

     from collections import OrderedDict

Then you create a blank, OrderedDict with the following line :

     sorted_dict = OrderedDict( )

Then you iterate through a dict in sorted order by value with the following line :

     for l_key, l_value in sorted( p_dict.iteritems( ), key = lambda( key, value ) : ( value, key ) ) :

Finally, you will need add the items one by one into the OrderedDict with the following line :

     sorted_dict[ l_key ] = l_value

So, this is how a final code for sorting a dictionary :

1 from collections import OrderedDict
2 
3 sorted_dict = OrderedDict( )
4 for l_key, l_value in sorted( p_dict.iteritems( ), key = lambda( key, value ) : ( value, key ) ) :
5     sorted_dit[ l_key ] = l_value