Sort a dictionary by value in Python
It is not possible to sort a dictionary, only to get a representation of a dictionary that is sorted. Dictionaries are inherently orderless, but other types, such as lists and tuples, are not. So you need an ordered data type to represent sorted values, which will be a list—probably a list of tuples.
<pre><code>mydict = {'jason':5,
'terry':1,
'michael':3,
'sam':6}

sorted_dict_value = sorted(mydict.items(), key=operator.itemgetter(0))
sorted_dict_value</code></pre>
<pre><code>[('jason', 5), ('michael', 3), ('sam', 6), ('terry', 1)]</code></pre>
Sort a dictionary by key in Python
<pre><code>import operator
sorted_dict_key = sorted(mydict.items(), key=lambda kv: kv[1])</code></pre>
<pre><code>sorted_dict_key</code></pre>
<pre><code>[('terry', 1), ('michael', 3), ('jason', 5), ('sam', 6)]</code></pre>

A step-by-step Python code example that shows how to sort a Python dictionary by keys and values. Provided by Data Interview Questions, a mailing list for coding and data interview problems.

Sort a Python dictionary by value or key