Stop Alphabetical Sorting?

[samsonsite1]

Hello,
I noticed the JSON writer is sorting my JSON data alphabetically when it writes it out.
How can I stop this from happening?

I am reading in a JSON file and then writing it out again.

Programmically, sure it doesn't matter, but I would like to maintain the original order, as certain items are listed first or grouped together to improve readability.

Sorting them alphabetically destroys readability. The file is very hard to read now.

[cdunn2001]

We could allow an optional order-preserving dictionary, but you might be better off with a different library altogether.

The reason we sort is that the order would be random otherwise. If you preserve order upon reading, then what is the API for inserting a new element within that order? Not obvious.

[jimfred]

What about adding the capability to append a key and value, e.g.,

Json::Value root(Json::objectValue);
root.append("Foo", Json::Value(mFoo)); // { "Foo" : 0 }
root.append("Bar", Json::Value(mBar));  // { "Foo" : 0, "Bar" : 0 }

or insert before a specific index...
root[0].insert("Zoo", Json::Value(mZoo)); // { "Zoo" : 0, "Foo" : 0, "Bar" : 0 }

[cdunn2001]

I don't see how we could make that work. And a JSON "object" itself is not ordered. If you want to store order, include a list.