Sort a dictionary by value in Python

This post will discuss how to sort a dictionary by its value in Python.

The Python Dictionaries before version 3.7 are unordered. That means even if you sort the dictionary, you can’t store it in a way that preserves the ordering.

1. Using `collections.OrderedDict`

The idea is to pass the dictionary’s items to the sorted() function, which returns a sorted list of dictionary entries using the specified key. Then you insert the sorted entries into collections.OrderedDict, which remembers the insertion order.

import operator

if __name__ == '__main__':

d = {"three": 3, "two": 2, "four": 4, "one": 1}

sortedDictWithValues = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=operator.itemgetter(1)))

# {'one': 1, 'two': 2, 'three': 3, 'four': 4}

print(sortedDictWithValues)

Download Run Code

In Python 3, you can sort the list of tuples by the second element in each tuple as follows:

import collections

if __name__ == '__main__':

d = {"three": 3, "two": 2, "four": 4, "one": 1}

sortedDictWithValues = collections.OrderedDict(sorted(d.items(), key=lambda x: x[1]))

# OrderedDict([('one', 1), ('two', 2), ('three', 3), ('four', 4)])

print(sortedDictWithValues)

Download Run Code

2. Python 3.7+

Before Python 3.7, it was not possible to sort a dictionary. You can use it only to get a sorted representation of a dictionary. With Python 3.7 or CPython 3.6+, the insertion order is now guaranteed in a dictionary. The following example demonstrates.

if __name__ == '__main__':

d = {"three": 3, "two": 2, "four": 4, "one": 1}

sortedDictWithValues = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=lambda x: x[1]))

# {'one': 1, 'two': 2, 'three': 3, 'four': 4}

print(sortedDictWithValues)

Download Run Code

To sort it in reverse order, you can pass the reverse argument as True:

if __name__ == '__main__':

d = {"three": 3, "two": 2, "four": 4, "one": 1}

sortedDictWithValues = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=lambda x: x[1], reverse=True))

# {'four': 4, 'three': 3, 'two': 2, 'one': 1}

print(sortedDictWithValues)

Download Run Code

3. Using `collections.Counter` class

If the dictionary’s values are numeric, you can use the collections.Counter class to print a dictionary in decreasing order of their values.

from collections import Counter

if __name__ == '__main__':

d = {'three': 3, 'two': 2, 'four': 4, 'one': 1}

c = Counter(d)

# [('four', 4), ('three', 3), ('two', 2), ('one', 1)]

print(c.most_common())

Download Run Code

That’s all about sorting a dictionary by value in Python.

Also See:

Sort a dictionary by key in Python

Sort a dictionary by value in Python

1. Using collections.OrderedDict

2. Python 3.7+

3. Using collections.Counter class

Share this:

1. Using `collections.OrderedDict`

3. Using `collections.Counter` class