Is the order of a Python dictionary guaranteed over iterations?

Question

I'm currently implementing a complex microbial food-web in Python using SciPy.integrate.ode. I need the ability to easily add species and reactions to the system, so I have to code up something quite general. My scheme looks something like this:

class Reaction(object):
    def __init__(self):
        #stuff common to all reactions
    def __getReactionRate(self, **kwargs):
        raise NotImplementedError

... Reaction subclasses that 
... implement specific types of reactions


class Species(object):
    def __init__(self, reactionsDict):
        self.reactionsDict = reactionsDict
        #reactionsDict looks like {'ReactionName':reactionObject, ...}
        #stuff common to all species

    def sumOverAllReactionsForThisSpecies(self, **kwargs):
        #loop over all the reactions and return the 
        #cumulative change in the concentrations of all solutes

...Species subclasses where for each species
... are defined and passed to the superclass constructor

class FermentationChamber(object):
    def __init__(self, speciesList, timeToSolve, *args):
        #do initialization

    def step(self):
        #loop over each species, which in turn loops 
        #over each reaction inside it and return a 
        #cumulative dictionary of total change for each 
        #solute in the whole system


if __name__==__main__:
    f = FermentationChamber(...)

    o  = ode(...) #initialize ode solver

    while o.successful() and o.t<timeToSolve:
         o.integrate()

    #process o.t and o.y (o.t contains the time points
    #and o.y contains the solution matrix)

So, the question is, when I iterate over the dictionaries in Species.sumOverAllReactionsForThisSpecies() and FermentationChamber.step(), is the iteration order of the dictionaries guaranteed to be the same if no elements are added or removed from the dictionaries between the first and the last iteration? That is, can I assume that the order of the numpy array created at each iteration from the dictionary will not vary? For example, if a dictionary has the format {'Glucose':10, 'Fructose':12}, if an Array created from this dictionary will always have the same order (it doesn't matter what that order is, as long as it's deterministic).

Sorry for the mega-post, I just wanted to let you know where I'm coming from.

Answer 1

Python 3.1 has a collections.OrderedDict class that can be used for this purpose. It's very efficient, too: "Big-O running times for all methods are the same as for regular dictionaries."

The code for OrderedDict itself is compatible with Python 2.x, though some inherited methods (from the _abcoll module) do use Python 3-only features. However, they can be modified to 2.x code with minimal effort.