Can PyYAML dump dict items in non-alphabetical order?

Question

I\'m using yaml.dump to output a dict. It prints out each item in alphabetical order based on the key.

>>> d = {\"z\":0,\"y\":0,\"x\":         


        

Answer 1

For Python 3.7+, dicts preserve insertion order. Since PyYAML 5.1.x, you can disable the sorting of keys (#254). Unfortunately, the sorting keys behaviour does still default to True.

>>> import yaml
>>> yaml.dump({"b":1, "a": 2})
'a: 2\nb: 1\n'
>>> yaml.dump({"b":1, "a": 2}, sort_keys=False)
'b: 1\na: 2\n'

My project oyaml is a monkeypatch/drop-in replacement for PyYAML. It will preserve dict order by default in all Python versions and PyYAML versions.

>>> import oyaml as yaml  # pip install oyaml
>>> yaml.dump({"b":1, "a": 2})
'b: 1\na: 2\n'

Additionally, it will dump the collections.OrderedDict subclass as normal mappings, rather than Python objects.

>>> from collections import OrderedDict
>>> d = OrderedDict([("b", 1), ("a", 2)])
>>> import yaml
>>> yaml.dump(d)
'!!python/object/apply:collections.OrderedDict\n- - - b\n    - 1\n  - - a\n    - 2\n'
>>> yaml.safe_dump(d)
RepresenterError: ('cannot represent an object', OrderedDict([('b', 1), ('a', 2)]))
>>> import oyaml as yaml
>>> yaml.dump(d)
'b: 1\na: 2\n'
>>> yaml.safe_dump(d)
'b: 1\na: 2\n'