Add support for using an ordered dictionary

README.rst

@@ -69,6 +69,26 @@ This is useful if you're going to use the same jmespath expression to
 search multiple documents.  This avoids having to reparse the
 JMESPath expression each time you search a new document.
 
+Options
+-------
+
+You can provide an instance of ``jmespath.Options`` to control how
+a JMESPath expression is evaluated.  The most common scenario for
+using an ``Options`` instance is if you want to have ordered output
+of your dict keys.  To do this you can use either of these options::
+
+    >>> import jmespath
+    >>> jmespath.search('{a: a, b: b},
+    ...                 mydata,
+    ...                 jmespath.Options(dict_cls=collections.OrderedDict))
+
+
+    >>> import jmespath
+    >>> parsed = jmespath.compile('{a: a, b: b}')
+    >>> parsed.search('{a: a, b: b},
+    ...               mydata,
+    ...               jmespath.Options(dict_cls=collections.OrderedDict))
+
 
 Specification
 =============

jmespath/__init__.py

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from jmespath import parser
+from jmespath.visitor import Options
 
 __version__ = '0.7.1'
 
@@ -7,5 +8,5 @@ def compile(expression):
     return parser.Parser().parse(expression)
 
 
-def search(expression, data):
-    return parser.Parser().parse(expression).search(data)
+def search(expression, data, options=None):
+    return parser.Parser().parse(expression).search(data, options=options)

jmespath/parser.py

@@ -504,8 +504,8 @@ def __init__(self, expression, parsed):
         self.expression = expression
         self.parsed = parsed
 
-    def search(self, value):
-        interpreter = visitor.TreeInterpreter()
+    def search(self, value, options=None):
+        interpreter = visitor.TreeInterpreter(options)
         result = interpreter.visit(self.parsed, value)
         return result
 

jmespath/visitor.py

@@ -33,6 +33,20 @@ def _is_special_integer_case(x, y):
         return x is True or x is False
 
 
+class Options(object):
+    """Options to control how a JMESPath function is evaluated."""
+    def __init__(self, dict_cls):
+        #: The class to use when creating a dict.  The interpreter
+        #  may create dictionaries during the evalution of a JMESPath
+        #  expression.  For example, a multi-select hash will
+        #  create a dictionary.  By default we use a dict() type.
+        #  You can set this value to change what dict type is used.
+        #  The most common reason you would change this is if you
+        #  want to set a collections.OrderedDict so that you can
+        #  have predictible key ordering.
+        self.dict_cls = dict_cls
+
+
 class _Expression(object):
     def __init__(self, expression):
         self.expression = expression
@@ -67,8 +81,12 @@ class TreeInterpreter(Visitor):
     }
     MAP_TYPE = dict
 
-    def __init__(self):
+    def __init__(self, options=None):
         super(TreeInterpreter, self).__init__()
+        self._options = options
+        self._dict_cls = self.MAP_TYPE
+        if options is not None and options.dict_cls is not None:
+            self._dict_cls = self._options.dict_cls
         self._functions = functions.RuntimeFunctions()
         # Note that .interpreter is a property that uses
         # a weakref so that the cyclic reference can be
@@ -167,7 +185,7 @@ def visit_literal(self, node, value):
     def visit_multi_select_dict(self, node, value):
         if value is None:
             return None
-        collected = self.MAP_TYPE()
+        collected = self._dict_cls()
         for child in node['children']:
             collected[child['value']] = self.visit(child, value)
         return collected

tests/test_compliance.py

@@ -6,14 +6,14 @@
 from nose.tools import assert_equal
 
 import jmespath
-from jmespath.visitor import TreeInterpreter
+from jmespath.visitor import TreeInterpreter, Options
 
 
 TEST_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
 COMPLIANCE_DIR = os.path.join(TEST_DIR, 'compliance')
 LEGACY_DIR = os.path.join(TEST_DIR, 'legacy')
 NOT_SPECIFIED = object()
-TreeInterpreter.MAP_TYPE = OrderedDict
+OPTIONS = Options(dict_cls=OrderedDict)
 
 
 def test_compliance():
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ def _test_expression(given, expression, expected, filename):
         raise AssertionError(
             'jmespath expression failed to compile: "%s", error: %s"' %
             (expression, e))
-    actual = parsed.search(given)
+    actual = parsed.search(given, options=OPTIONS)
     expected_repr = json.dumps(expected, indent=4)
     actual_repr = json.dumps(actual, indent=4)
     error_msg = ("\n\n  (%s) The expression '%s' was suppose to give:\n%s\n"

tests/test_parser.py

@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 import re
-from tests import unittest
+from tests import unittest, OrderedDict
 
 from jmespath import parser
+from jmespath import visitor
 from jmespath import ast
 from jmespath import exceptions
 
@@ -320,6 +321,18 @@ def test_expression_available_from_parser(self):
         self.assertEqual(parsed.expression, 'foo.bar')
 
 
+class TestParsedResultAddsOptions(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_can_have_ordered_dict(self):
+        p = parser.Parser()
+        parsed = p.parse('{a: a, b: b, c: c}')
+        options = visitor.Options(dict_cls=OrderedDict)
+        result = parsed.search(
+            {"c": "c", "b": "b", "a": "a"}, options=options)
+        # The order should be 'a', 'b' because we're using an
+        # OrderedDict
+        self.assertEqual(list(result), ['a', 'b', 'c'])
+
+
 class TestRenderGraphvizFile(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_dot_file_rendered(self):
         p = parser.Parser()

tests/test_search.py

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+from tests import unittest, OrderedDict
+
+import jmespath
+
+
+class TestSearchOptions(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_can_provide_dict_cls(self):
+        result = jmespath.search(
+            '{a: a, b: b, c: c}.*',
+            {'c': 'c', 'b': 'b', 'a': 'a', 'd': 'd'},
+            options=jmespath.Options(dict_cls=OrderedDict))
+        self.assertEqual(result, ['a', 'b', 'c'])