OrderedDict for older versions of python

Question

Ordered dictionaries are extremely useful structures, but unfortunately these are quite recent only working in versions from 3.1 and 2.7. How can I use an ordered dictionary

Answer 1

To import a OrderedDict class for different versions of Python, consider this snippet:

try:
    from collections import OrderedDict
except ImportError:
    from ordereddict import OrderedDict

# Now use it from any version of Python
mydict = OrderedDict()

Versions older than Python 2.6 will need to install ordereddict (using pip or other methods), but newer versions will import from the built-in collections module.