sort the list

[Daniel Schüle]

[...]

>> >>> lst = [[1,4],[3,9],[2,5],[3,2]]
>> >>> lst
>>[[1, 4], [3, 9], [2, 5], [3, 2]]
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> lst.sort(cmp = lambda x,y: cmp(x[1], y[1]))
>> >>> lst
>>[[3, 2], [1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 9]]
>> >>>
>>
>>works for Python 2.4
>>in earlier Pythons just let cmp = .. away
>>
>>Regards, Daniel
> 
> what does let cmp = .. away mean?

it means
lst.sort(lambda x,y: cmp(x[1], y[1]))

I can offer you some more brain food to digest ;)
maybe you can adapt this solution, but that depends
on your problem
I find it clear and I used it recently

 >>> name, age, salary = "name", "age", "salary"
 >>> people = [
... {name:"oliver", age:25, salary:1800},
... {name:"mischa", age:23, salary:0},
... {name:"peter", age:22, salary:1500},
... ]
 >>>
 >>> def cmpFabrik(field):
...     def cmpFunc(x,y):
...             return cmp(x[field], y[field])
...     return cmpFunc
 >>> people.sort(cmp = cmpFabrik(name))
 >>> people.sort(cmp = cmpFabrik(age))
 >>> people.sort(cmp = cmpFabrik(salary))

it's not very OO but sometimes things are simple
and no need to create a class

Regards, Daniel