best Pythonic way to do this sort: Python newb

[Satchidanand Haridas]

----
Satchidanand Haridas (sharidas at zeomega dot com)

ZeOmega (www.zeomega.com)
Open  Minds' Open Solutions



Sean Berry wrote:

>"Paul Rubin" <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote in message 
>news:7xbr1y9e1c.fsf at ruckus.brouhaha.com...
>  
>
>>"Sean Berry" <sean at buildingonline.com> writes:
>>    
>>
>>>myList = [[value1, value2, value3],[value1, value2, value3], ...]
>>>
>>>I have a function which takes value3 from the lists above and returns
>>>another value.  I want to use this returned value to sort the lists.
>>>
>>>So, my resultant list would be ordered by the return value of the
>>>function with value3 as its argument.
>>>
>>>From a relative Python newb, what is the best way to do this?
>>>      
>>>
>>def get_key(x): return x[2]
>>sorted_list = sorted(myList, key=get_key)
>>    
>>
>
>Sorry if I am missing something.  But. what is sorted here?
>
>My simplified function looks like this
>
>def myFunction( myNumber ):
>    "do some math calculations to myNumber"
>    return "result of calculations"
>
>So, I want to sort myList by the return of myFunction( value3 )
>
>I tried doing the following... with no luck so far
>myList.sort(lambda x, y: cmp(myFunction(x[2]), myFunction(y[2]))
>
>  
>
I think the above statement should be as follows:

myList.sort(lambda x, y: cmp(myFunction(x[2]) - myFunction(y[2]))



hope that helps.

regards,
Satchit