sorting a list

[Thorsten Kampe]

[Snip fullquote]

* Sean Berry (2004-04-29 02:50 +0100)
>>>> a = ['A', 'D', 'F', 'a', 'f']
>>>> a.sort(lambda x, y: cmp(string.lower(x), string.lower(y)))
>>>> a
> ['a', 'A', 'D', 'f', 'F']
> 
> this will work too, if lower can come before upper.

Yes indeed. But the main point of my posting was to use a general
function sort so you don't have to reinvent the wheel everytime for
every single sorting problem.

Another advantage of my approach is to use a function of *one*
variable (at the top level) and the other ones use a function of two
variables. It doesn't make much difference with this trivial task, but
when the function you want to sort by is much more complex it makes a
hell of a difference.

funcsort(foo, lambda x: x.lower())

is clean code and tells even without a comment that you want to sort
case insensitively.

Thorsten