# Howto: load YAML and preserve the key order?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/howto-load-yaml-and-preserve-the-key-order/176562>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 2, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/howto-load-yaml-and-preserve-the-key-order/176562 "2009-10-02T06:20:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bwv549](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@bwv549](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bwv549)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/howto-load-yaml-and-preserve-the-key-order/176562/1 "2009-10-02T06:20:42Z")

</div>

the orderedhash gem does a really nice job at allowing you to print  
yaml with ordered keys.

# quick example to show what I’m talking about

require ‘orderedhash’  
h = OrderedHash.new  
h[3] = 8  
h[9] = 10

h.to\_yaml # will give: “—\n3: 8\n9:10” every time

I need to be able to also read in YAML while preserving the key  
order. Any ideas on how to do this (besides using 1.9)?