arranging dictionary elements in sorted order

Question

In my scinario, I am having data as kind of a sorted list:

  sample =  ['1:4', '2:2', '3:1', '4:1', '5:1', 'B5S94Y:1', 'DB:4', 'ICEauthority:1', 'JPG:1', 'MZPZ5Y:1', 'Mdg80A:1', 'TAG:1', 'V2XO5Y:1', 'Xauthority:1', 'apmrc:1', 'asc:1', 'bak:1', 'baseA:4', 'baseB:4', 'bash:1', 'bash_history:1', 'bash_logout:1', 'bashrc:1', 'bat:1', 'bau:1', 'bdic:1', 'bin:5', 'c:282', 'cache-6:55', 'cache:103', 'cfg:3', 'conf:15', 'converted-launchers:1', 'cson:2', 'css:34', 'dat:2', 'db-journal:3', 'db-shm:1', 'db-wal:1', 'db:17', 'dbf:1', 'dbt:1', 'deb:3', 'desktop:2', 'dic:1', 'dirs:1', 'dll:42', 'dmrc:1', 'docx:9', 'exc:1', 'exe:20', 'final:1', 'fingerprint:4', 'fmt:1', 'gif:5', 'gitconfig:1', 'gitignore:6', 'gitkeep:2', 'gitmodules:1', 'gpg-agent:1', 'gpg:1', 'gradle:3', 'gvdb:1', 'gz:169', 'h:14', 'htm:1', 'html:43', 'icc:1', 'ico:1', 'ics:3', 'idx:5', 'info:1', 'ini:14', 'ino:1', 'isrunning:1', 'jar:1', 'java:7', 'journal:2', 'jpg:16', 'js-20170612122310:1', 'js-20170816210634:1', 'js:245', 'json:367', 'jsonlz4:39', 'kbx:1', 'keyring:1', 'keystore:1', 'ldb:23', 'list:2', 'little:2', 'locale:1', 'localstorage-journal:71', 'localstorage:71', 'lock:1', 'log:41', 'lst:2', 'lsup7I:1', 'lz4:1', 'm:1', 'map:2', 'md:92', 'md~:1', 'metadata-v2:6', 'metadata:6', 'mozlz4:2', 'name:1', 'nls:1', 'odb:2', 'odt:1', 'old:24', 'orig:1', 'otf:31', 'out:19', 'pack:5', 'pak:1', 'parentlock:2', 'pb:32', 'pdf:18', 'pf2:5', 'php:12', 'pl:1', 'pma:2', 'png:2348', 'pro:1', 'profile:1', 'properties:2', 'pset:42', 'pub:1', 'py:41', 'pyc:4', 'rb:1', 'rcache:2', 'rdf:2', 'reg:3', 'run:1', 'sample:72', 'sbstore:42', 'sdv:1', 'sh:27', 'so:2', 'source:1', 'spec:9', 'sqlite-journal:1', 'sqlite-shm:4', 'sqlite-wal:4', 'sqlite3-journal:1', 'sqlite3:1', 'sqlite:24', 'stamp:2', 'stderr:8', 'stdout:8', 'sth:19', 'sublime_session:1', 'sudo_as_admin_successful:1', 'svg:124', 'swo:1', 'swp:2', 'sys:1', 'tdb:3', 'thm:1', 'trashinfo:3', 'tsv:1', 'ttf:107', 'tvc:1', 'txt:63', 'update-timestamp:1', 'usage:6', 'viminfo:1', 'vxd:1', 'woff:1', 'x86_64-pc-linux-gnu:1', 'xba:1', 'xbel:1', 'xcu:1', 'xinputrc:1', 'xlb:2', 'xlc:2', 'xml:35', 'xpi:9', 'xsession-errors:1', 'yml:1', 'zcompdump:1', 'zip:5', 'zsh-template:1', 'zsh-theme:143', 'zsh-update:1', 'zsh:235', 'zsh_history:1', 'zshrc:1']

So after converting this above list to a dictionary with the following code:

dict_val = {a:b for a, b in [i.split(":") for i in sample]}

The output will be:

{'baseA': '4', 'baseB': '4', 'cache-6': '55', 'Xauthority': '1', 'gitmodules': '1', 'apmrc': '1', 'gz': '169', 'dbf': '1', 'kbx': '1', 'sqlite-shm': '4', 'dbt': '1', 'gitignore': '6', 'xml': '35', 'sbstore': '42', 'cache': '103', 'jar': '1', 'desktop': '2', 'source': '1', 'sqlite3-journal': '1', 'TAG': '1', '4': '1', 'tsv': '1', 'spec': '9', 'bin': '5', 'docx': '9', 'woff': '1', 'db': '17', 'V2XO5Y': '1', 'dat': '2', 'fingerprint': '4', 'lz4': '1', 'name': '1', 'bat': '1', 'bau': '1', 'converted-launchers': '1', 'h': '14', 'list': '2', 'lst': '2', 'gradle': '3', 'zsh-update': '1', 'mozlz4': '2', 'stderr': '8', 'sublime_session': '1', 'bak': '1', 'isrunning': '1', 'locale': '1', 'cfg': '3', 'htm': '1', 'odt': '1', 'xlb': '2', 'md~': '1', 'pma': '2', 'sqlite-journal': '1', 'odb': '2', 'dic': '1', 'tvc': '1', 'out': '19', 'ico': '1', 'icc': '1', 'dll': '42', '3': '1', 'rb': '1', 'ics': '3', 'py': '41', 'journal': '2', 'metadata': '6', 'dirs': '1', 'run': '1', 'tdb': '3', 'DB': '4', 'zshrc': '1', 'xpi': '9', 'pub': '1', 'js': '245', 'asc': '1', 'ldb': '23', 'xlc': '2', 'xbel': '1', 'properties': '2', 'bash': '1', 'sys': '1', 'c': '282', 'zip': '5', 'idx': '5', 'lsup7I': '1', 'zcompdump': '1', 'rdf': '2', 'dmrc': '1', 'Mdg80A': '1', 'pdf': '18', 'reg': '3', 'jsonlz4': '39', 'bashrc': '1', 'db-journal': '3', 'pf2': '5', 'localstorage': '71', 'old': '24', 'txt': '63', 'orig': '1', 'gvdb': '1', 'little': '2', 'pyc': '4', 'java': '7', 'log': '41', 'swo': '1', 'stamp': '2', 'vxd': '1', 'fmt': '1', 'gpg': '1', 'zsh-template': '1', 'pb': '32', 'gif': '5', 'json': '367', '2': '2', 'js-20170612122310': '1', 'swp': '2', 'bash_logout': '1', 'final': '1', 'pl': '1', 'gpg-agent': '1', 'sdv': '1', 'x86_64-pc-linux-gnu': '1', 'parentlock': '2', 'cson': '2', 'rcache': '2', 'otf': '31', 'usage': '6', 'bash_history': '1', 'localstorage-journal': '71', 'update-timestamp': '1', 'png': '2348', 'exc': '1', 'info': '1', 'md': '92', 'js-20170816210634': '1', 'sth': '19', 'yml': '1', 'sqlite-wal': '4', 'deb': '3', 'zsh': '235', 'pack': '5', 'zsh_history': '1', 'sqlite': '24', 'stdout': '8', 'lock': '1', 'pro': '1', 'gitkeep': '2', 'jpg': '16', 'sample': '72', 'ino': '1', 'pset': '42', 'ini': '14', 'conf': '15', 'xcu': '1', 'sudo_as_admin_successful': '1', 'xsession-errors': '1', 'keystore': '1', 'nls': '1', 'sh': '27', 'bdic': '1', '1': '4', 'html': '43', '5': '1', 'MZPZ5Y': '1', 'sqlite3': '1', 'pak': '1', 'ttf': '107', 'css': '34', 'profile': '1', 'map': '2', 'metadata-v2': '6', 'm': '1', 'zsh-theme': '143', 'trashinfo': '3', 'ICEauthority': '1', 'php': '12', 'B5S94Y': '1', 'viminfo': '1', 'exe': '20', 'db-shm': '1', 'xinputrc': '1', 'svg': '124', 'keyring': '1', 'JPG': '1', 'thm': '1', 'gitconfig': '1', 'so': '2', 'xba': '1', 'db-wal': '1'}

So I want to know why the order of the output data has changed compared to the input data and how to get the output in the same sorted order as the input is given!!

Answer 1

dicts in python versions older than 3.6 do not have any notion of ordering. If you want a dictionary that maintains order, you'll want the collections.OrderedDict data structure.

from collections import OrderedDict    
mapping = OrderedDict(i.split(":") for i in sample)

mapping is an OrderedDict, a subclass of dict which supports all the basic dict functionality, plus the ordering.

Also, do not use dict as a variable name, it shadows the builtin class dict.