class CyclicDependencyError(ValueError): pass def topological_sort_as_sets(dependency_graph): """ Variation of Kahn's algorithm (1962) that returns sets. Take a dependency graph as a dictionary of node => dependencies. Yield sets of items in topological order, where the first set contains all nodes without dependencies, and each following set contains all nodes that may depend on the nodes only in the previously yielded sets. """ todo = dependency_graph.copy() while todo: current = {node for node, deps in todo.items() if not deps} if not current: raise CyclicDependencyError( "Cyclic dependency in graph: {}".format( ", ".join(repr(x) for x in todo.items()) ) ) yield current # remove current from todo's nodes & dependencies todo = { node: (dependencies - current) for node, dependencies in todo.items() if node not in current } def stable_topological_sort(nodes, dependency_graph): result = [] for layer in topological_sort_as_sets(dependency_graph): for node in nodes: if node in layer: result.append(node) return result