[3.7] bpo-36057 Update docs and tests for ordering in collections.Counter [no behavior change] (GH-11962)

Doc/library/collections.rst

@@ -253,15 +253,20 @@ For example::
 
     .. versionadded:: 3.1
 
+    .. versionchanged:: 3.7 As a :class:`dict` subclass, :class:`Counter`
+       Inherited the capability to remember insertion order.  Math operations
+       on *Counter* objects also preserve order.  Results are ordered
+       according to when an element is first encountered in the left operand
+       and then by the order encountered in the right operand.
 
     Counter objects support three methods beyond those available for all
     dictionaries:
 
     .. method:: elements()
 
         Return an iterator over elements repeating each as many times as its
-        count.  Elements are returned in arbitrary order.  If an element's count
-        is less than one, :meth:`elements` will ignore it.
+        count.  Elements are returned in the order first encountered. If an
+        element's count is less than one, :meth:`elements` will ignore it.
 
             >>> c = Counter(a=4, b=2, c=0, d=-2)
             >>> sorted(c.elements())
@@ -272,10 +277,10 @@ For example::
         Return a list of the *n* most common elements and their counts from the
         most common to the least.  If *n* is omitted or ``None``,
         :meth:`most_common` returns *all* elements in the counter.
-        Elements with equal counts are ordered arbitrarily:
+        Elements with equal counts are ordered in the order first encountered:
 
-            >>> Counter('abracadabra').most_common(3)  # doctest: +SKIP
-            [('a', 5), ('r', 2), ('b', 2)]
+            >>> Counter('abracadabra').most_common(3)
+            [('a', 5), ('b', 2), ('r', 2)]
 
     .. method:: subtract([iterable-or-mapping])
 

Lib/collections/__init__.py

@@ -574,8 +574,8 @@ def most_common(self, n=None):
         '''List the n most common elements and their counts from the most
         common to the least.  If n is None, then list all element counts.
 
-        >>> Counter('abcdeabcdabcaba').most_common(3)
-        [('a', 5), ('b', 4), ('c', 3)]
+        >>> Counter('abracadabra').most_common(3)
+        [('a', 5), ('b', 2), ('r', 2)]
 
         '''
         # Emulate Bag.sortedByCount from Smalltalk

Lib/test/test_collections.py

@@ -1813,6 +1813,63 @@ def test_init(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, Counter, (), ())
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, Counter.__init__)
 
+    def test_order_preservation(self):
+        # Input order dictates items() order
+        self.assertEqual(list(Counter('abracadabra').items()),
+               [('a', 5), ('b', 2), ('r', 2), ('c', 1), ('d', 1)])
+        # letters with same count:   ^----------^         ^---------^
+
+        # Verify retention of order even when all counts are equal
+        self.assertEqual(list(Counter('xyzpdqqdpzyx').items()),
+               [('x', 2), ('y', 2), ('z', 2), ('p', 2), ('d', 2), ('q', 2)])
+
+        # Input order dictates elements() order
+        self.assertEqual(list(Counter('abracadabra simsalabim').elements()),
+                ['a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'b', 'b', 'b','r',
+                 'r', 'c', 'd', ' ', 's', 's', 'i', 'i', 'm', 'm', 'l'])
+
+        # Math operations order first by the order encountered in the left
+        # operand and then by the order encounted in the right operand.
+        ps = 'aaabbcdddeefggghhijjjkkl'
+        qs = 'abbcccdeefffhkkllllmmnno'
+        order = {letter: i for i, letter in enumerate(dict.fromkeys(ps + qs))}
+        def correctly_ordered(seq):
+            'Return true if the letters occur in the expected order'
+            positions = [order[letter] for letter in seq]
+            return positions == sorted(positions)
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(+p))
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(-p))
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p + q))
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p - q))
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p | q))
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p & q))
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p += q
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p -= q
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p |= q
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p &= q
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p.update(q)
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p.subtract(q)
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
     def test_update(self):
         c = Counter()
         c.update(self=42)