I sometimes need to send the information strictly in order. Don't use a dictionary then, use a list of tuples:
values = [("entry1", "value1"), ("entry2", "value2"), ("entry3", "value3")]
Dictionaries and JSON objects do not have a set order. Neither will preserve your input order, nor are they required to.
To quote the JSON RFC:
An object is an unordered collection of zero or more name/value pairs [...]
and the Python dict.items()
documentation:
Keys and values are listed in an arbitrary order which is non-random, varies across Python implementations, and depends on the dictionary’s history of insertions and deletions.