>>> worldDic={'a':9, 'world':10, 'z':8, 'hello':12}
>>> print sorted(worldDic.items(), key=lambda d:d[0])
[('a', 9), ('hello', 12), ('world', 10), ('z', 8)]
>>> print sorted(worldDic.items(), key=lambda d:d[1])
[('z', 8), ('a', 9), ('world', 10), ('hello', 12)]
>>>