[Tutor] Sorting a list

[Kent Johnson]

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com> wrote:

> def compare(x,y):
>    if type(x) == str:  return  -1
>    if type(y) == str: return 1
>    return cmp(x,y)
>
>
> Runs into problems if you have multiple strings and want them sorted too...

A slight variation - if the types are the same, use cmp():

In [1]: def compare(x, y):
   ...:     if type(x) == type(y):
   ...:         return cmp(x, y)
   ...:     if type(x) == str: return -1
   ...:     if type(y) == str: return 1
   ...:     return cmp(x, y) # This is kind of arbitrary
   ...:

In [2]: L = [4,3,'word','picture',1,2,3]

In [3]: sorted(L, cmp=compare)
Out[3]: ['picture', 'word', 1, 2, 3, 3, 4]

In [4]: L = [4,3,'picture','word',1,2,3]

In [5]: sorted(L, cmp=compare)
Out[5]: ['picture', 'word', 1, 2, 3, 3, 4]

Kent