max() of a list of tuples

[Erik Max Francis]

Mario Wehbrink wrote:

> Am Die, 21 Jan 2003 schrieb Max M in comp.lang.python:
> 
> > Mario Wehbrink wrote:
> >
> > > [maximum of list of tuples]
> >
> >
> > l = [(1,3,5), (8,16,2), (2,56,4)]
> > print max([(i[-1],i) for i in l])[1]
> >
> >  >>> (1,3,5)
> 
> Nice and elegant! Thanks. Although i don't understand how it works :-/

I'm suspecting if you don't understand how it works then it can't really
be too elegant :-).

The code sample constructs an enumeration of the tuples with their third
(last) element, relies on default sorting of lists (and tuples) to sort
by the first element first, picks the maximum element of that
enumeration, and then extracts the tuple associated with it.

It works, and it's arguably the right way to do it, but "elegant" isn't
the word I'd associate with it.

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