Question

I have this:

String foo = 

    "options": {
      "1",
      "2",
      "3",
      "4",
      "5",
      "6",
      "7",
      "8",
      "9",
    }

But the JSONObject constructor rearranges the keys:

new JSONObject(foo).toString() = 

    "options": {
      "6",
      "3",
      "7",
      "2",
      "5",
      "1",
      "4",
      "8",
      "9",
    }

The new order is reproducible, meaning each execution results in the same (seemingly random) rearrangement.

Answer 1

That does not look like valid JSON to me. First, there is not {} or [] surrounding the entire string. Second, it looks like the data associated with options should be inside and array ([]) not be an object({}). If it was an array, the order would be preserved, whereas with the values just being declared as properties, there is no guarantee on their order.