How to iterate through dict in random order in Python?

Question

How can I iterate through all items of a dictionary in a random order? I mean something random.shuffle, but for a dictionary.

Answer 1

A dict is an unordered set of key-value pairs. When you iterate a dict, it is effectively random. But to explicitly randomize the sequence of key-value pairs, you need to work with a different object that is ordered, like a list. dict.items(), dict.keys(), and dict.values() each return lists, which can be shuffled.

items=d.items() # List of tuples random.shuffle(items) for key, value in items:     print key, value  keys=d.keys() # List of keys random.shuffle(keys) for key in keys:     print key, d[key] 

Or, if you don't care about the keys:

values=d.values() # List of values random.shuffle(values) # Shuffles in-place for value in values:     print value 

You can also "sort by random":

for key, value in sorted(d.items(), key=lambda x: random.random()):     print key, value 

Answer 2

You can't. Get the list of keys with .keys(), shuffle them, then iterate through the list while indexing the original dict.

Or use .items(), and shuffle and iterate that.