json/doc/mkdocs/docs/features/object_order.md

Object Order

The JSON standard defines objects as "an unordered collection of zero or more name/value pairs". As such, an implementation does not need to preserve any specific order of object keys.

The default type nlohmann::json uses a std::map to store JSON objects, and thus stores object keys sorted alphabetically.

??? example

```cpp
#include <iostream>
#include "json.hpp"

using json = nlohmann::json;

int main()
{
    json j;
    j["one"] = 1;
    j["two"] = 2;
    j["three"] = 3;
    
    std::cout << j.dump(2) << '\n';
}
```

Output:

```json
{
  "one": 1,
  "three": 3,
  "two": 2
}
```

If you do want to preserve the insertion order, you can try the type nlohmann::ordered_json.

??? example

```cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <nlohmann/json.hpp>

using ordered_json = nlohmann::ordered_json;

int main()
{
    ordered_json j;
    j["one"] = 1;
    j["two"] = 2;
    j["three"] = 3;
    
    std::cout << j.dump(2) << '\n';
}
```

Output:

```json
{
  "one": 1,
  "two": 2,
  "three": 3
}
```

Alternatively, you can use a more sophisticated ordered map like tsl::ordered_map (integration) or nlohmann::fifo_map (integration).