@acushner's solution can now be simplified in python3.6+ as dictionaries now preserve their insertion order.
Given we can now use the standard dictionary, the code now looks like:
def order_dict(dictionary):
result = {}
for k, v in sorted(dictionary.items()):
if isinstance(v, dict):
result[k] = order_dict(v)
else:
result[k] = v
return result
Because we can use standard dictionaries, we can also use standard dictionary comprehensions, so the code boils down to:
def order_dict(dictionary):
return {k: order_dict(v) if isinstance(v, dict) else v
for k, v in sorted(dictionary.items())}
See also https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2016-September/146327.html for detail on python's ordered dictionary implementation. Also, the pronouncement that this will be a language feature as of python 3.7: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-December/151283.html