Order nodes of same rank with dot

Question

I am using dot to draw a directed graph. In this graph I want to have the nodes at the same rank to appear in a pre-defined order. Is this possible?

Answer 1

I've only found a hackish solution: add (invisible) constraints to represent ordering.

node1 -> node2  [style=invis]
node2 -> node3  [style=invis]
...

More compact version:

node1 -> node2 -> node3 -> node4  [style=invis]