# Non-aphabetic ordering of templated dict items **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Tags:** templating, jinja2\ **Created:** [November 4, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/non-aphabetic-ordering-of-templated-dict-items/44783 "2025-11-04T15:17:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/non-aphabetic-ordering-of-templated-dict-items/44783/1 "2025-11-04T15:17:43Z")
I’m pulling a bunch of dicts from an API, each of which looks something like the following after piping through `to_nice_yaml`: ```yaml - createdAt: '2022-01-04T16:31:35Z' executionOrder: Parallel frequency: Weekly frequencyDetails: intervals: interval: - weekDay: Monday - weekDay: Tuesday - weekDay: Wednesday - weekDay: Thursday - weekDay: Friday start: 02:00:00 id: 75d85156-2e01-47a2-b3df-4a3cf7d43fed name: Run Flow - Weekday 2:00AM nextRunAt: '2025-11-04T07:00:00Z' priority: '50' state: Active type: Flow updatedAt: '2025-11-03T07:00:26Z' ``` _(These are Tableau™ job queue schedules, btw, if you’re curious. But that’s beside the point.)_ Some of these dicts may have more or fewer attributes than shown above. **The problem:** I want to template these dicts with a specific non-alphabetic order of top-level attributes. Particularly, `name`, `type`, and `state` should be listed first, in that order (if they exist), followed by any other existing attributes in no particular order. A bonus would be the ability to skip some attributes —`nextRunAt`, `createdAt`, and `updatedAt` for example. I don’t care about the ordering of “subordinate” attributes like the internals of `frequencyDetails` in this case. **My Question:** Is there an elegant way of filtering or otherwise iterating over dict attributes to meet such ordering requirements? I know there are _inelegant_ ways to do it; I’m using one now, and it’s ~~xxxx~~ -ugly, full of brute force Jinja tricks that are not particularly robust when faced with dicts having missing or unexpected extra attributes. I realize the ordering doesn’t matter to machines, but humans who have to read these things would appreciate having, for example, the `name` at the top. Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/non-aphabetic-ordering-of-templated-dict-items/44783/2 "2025-11-04T16:45:13Z")
I think any pure jinja implementation is going to be problematic, especially from a “wtf is this doing” perspective. I’d recommend a custom filter. Potentially that takes a priority list. Something like: ```python def prio_sort(v, keys=None): if not keys: prio_map = {} else: prio_map = {k: i for i, k in enumerate(keys)} return dict(sorted(v.items(), key=lambda k_v: prio_map.get(k_v[0], 65535))) class FilterModule: def filters(self): return { 'prio_sort': prio_sort, } ``` Then in your playbook, or wherever you use it: ```auto things | map('prio_sort', keys=['name', 'type', 'state']) | to_nice_yaml(sort_keys=False) ``` The default for `to_nice_yaml` is `sort_keys=True` which would destroy the sorting just done, so you have to disable it. Note that the default callback (by default) will use `json.dumps` with `sort_keys=True`, so depending on how you look at it, without the `to_nice_yaml(sort_keys=False)` it would potentially appear as though the sorting didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/non-aphabetic-ordering-of-templated-dict-items/44783/3 "2025-11-04T20:54:15Z")
Thank you so much, @sivel. That’s exactly what I was hoping for, but my python foo is not likely to have come up with such a clean implementation. (I learned BASIC in 1978. Everything I’ve written since then looks like BASIC.) I tweaked it a bit to fit our naming schemes, and added the bonus feature of omitting undesired keys. The final result is this: ```python def dict_reorder(v, first_keys=None, skip_keys=[]): if not first_keys: prio_map = {} else: prio_map = {k: i for i, k in enumerate(first_keys)} return dict( sorted( [item for item in v.items() if item[0] not in skip_keys], key=lambda k_v: prio_map.get(k_v[0], 65535), ) ) class FilterModule: def filters(self): return { 'dict_reorder': dict_reorder, } ``` That drops right into our `local.tablinx` collection’s existing `plugins/filter/tablinx.py` file, and my invocation looks like this: ```auto --- # ./group_vars/mw_tablinx_{{ mw_tablinx_env }}/schedules_live.yml # # Generated {{ now() }} by playbook mw_tablinx_utoddl_sched_2.yml. # # This file contains all schedules that existed in the {{ mw_tablinx_env }} # environment at the time the playbook was run. It will be overridden # on subsequent runs, so don't edit this file. mw_tablinx_schedules_live_{{ mw_tablinx_env }}: {% for sch in schedules_all | sort(attribute="state,type,name") %} - {{ sch | local.tablinx.dict_reorder(first_keys=['name', 'type', 'state'], skip_keys=['nextRunAt', 'createdAt', 'updatedAt']) | to_nice_yaml(indent=2, sort_keys=False) | indent(4) }} {% endfor %} ``` That’s still not tiny, but each bit of the Jinja does something comprehensible — which is a great improvement over the fiasco I was creating. I am very happy! 🤩 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/non-aphabetic-ordering-of-templated-dict-items/44783/4 "2025-12-04T20:54:19Z")
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