sorting a list numbers stored as strings

[Peter Otten]

aine_canby wrote:

> I have the following list -
> 
> ["1", "11", "2", "22"]
> 
> how do I sort it like this -
> 
> ["1", "2", "11", "22"]

>>> items = ["1", "11", "2", "22"]
>>> items.sort(key=int)
>>> items
['1', '2', '11', '22']

This is more efficient than Amit's compare function and even Bruno's
decorate-sort-undecorate (DSU) -- which of course only matters if the list
becomes a bit larger. 

Peter