Python 3.0 - is this true?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:02:28 +0000, Arnaud Delobelle wrote:

>> And, if so, why are they doing this?
> 
> How is it helpful to be able to sort things which have no natural order?

Assuming you need to sort arbitrary types, then you have to choose an 
order, even if it is arbitrary, so long as it's consistent.

I agree that Python shouldn't try to guess how to order incomparable 
types, nor how to order unorderable types, but I'm pretty sure that by 
using the key argument to sort you can specify your own ordering. I don't 
have Python 3 installed here, but some variation on this will probably 
work:

>>> alist = [2+3j, -4+5j, 8+2j, 1-7j, 6]
>>> sorted(alist, key=str)
[(-4+5j), (1-7j), (2+3j), (8+2j), 6]



Define your own ordering if you need to sort incomparable types.



-- 
Steven