How do I sort a Python dictionary by its keys?

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1

I have a dictionary like this:

{2: 3, 1: 89, 4: 5, 3: 0}

I want to reorder it so that it’s sorted by key in ascending order, resulting in:

{1: 89, 2: 3, 3: 0, 4: 5}

What’s the most straightforward or Pythonic way to sort a dictionary by key and preserve that order, especially in newer versions of Python where dictionaries maintain insertion order?

Looking for clean solutions using built-in methods or collections if needed.

2

Hey @Ariyaskumar, Since Python 3.7+, dictionaries keep their insertion order, so you can easily sort a dictionary by key and create a new one that stays ordered.

Here’s a clean, Pythonic way using a dictionary comprehension with sorted():

python
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my_dict = {2: 3, 1: 89, 4: 5, 3: 0}
sorted_dict = {k: my_dict[k] for k in sorted(my_dict)}
print(sorted_dict)
# Output: {1: 89, 2: 3, 3: 0, 4: 5}

This sorts the keys in ascending order and rebuilds a new dict with that order preserved.

3

From my experience, you can also use the collections.OrderedDict if you want to be explicit about order (especially if you’re working in Python versions before 3.7):

python
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from collections import OrderedDict

my_dict = {2: 3, 1: 89, 4: 5, 3: 0}
sorted_dict = OrderedDict(sorted(my_dict.items()))
print(sorted_dict)

This creates an OrderedDict sorted by keys.

But since Python 3.7+, just using a normal dict with sorted() is often simpler for python sort dictionary by key tasks.

4

If you want a one-liner that’s concise and does the job, try this:

python
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my_dict = {2: 3, 1: 89, 4: 5, 3: 0}
sorted_dict = dict(sorted(my_dict.items()))
print(sorted_dict)

This uses dict() on the sorted list of (key, value) tuples, which preserves the key order.

It’s a very straightforward way to python sort dictionary by key without importing anything extra.

To python sort dictionary by key, use sorted() with either dictionary comprehension or directly on my_dict.items().

In modern Python, dictionaries preserve order, so this method is clean and reliable.

For older versions, OrderedDict is a solid fallback.

Let me know if you want examples for descending order or sorting by values!