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

Also, you could just program your way around it if your situation allows:

def doSomething(strInput): return [ord(x) for x in strInput]

things = ['first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth']

oDict = {}
orderedKeys = []
for thing in things:
    oDict[thing] = doSomething(thing)
    orderedKeys.append(thing)

for key in oDict.keys():
    print key, ": ", oDict[key]

print

for key in orderedKeys:
    print key, ": ", oDict[key]

second : [115, 101, 99, 111, 110, 100]
fourth : [102, 111, 117, 114, 116, 104]
third : [116, 104, 105, 114, 100]
first : [102, 105, 114, 115, 116]

first : [102, 105, 114, 115, 116]
second : [115, 101, 99, 111, 110, 100]
third : [116, 104, 105, 114, 100]
fourth : [102, 111, 117, 114, 116, 104]

You could embed the ordered keys in your Dictionary too, I suppose, as oDict['keyList'] = orderedKeys