Sorting lists

[Chris Rebert]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 1:56 AM, asc <adam.cheasley at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I have a problem and I'm not sure whether sort() can help me.
> I understand that if I have a list; say L = ['b', 'c', 'a']
> I can use L.sort() and I will then have; L = ['a', 'b', 'c']
>
> But my problem is this. I have a list, that contains a number of
> embeded lists;
> e.g. L2 = [['something', 'bb'], ['somethingElse', 'cc'],
> ['anotherThing', 'aa']]
> Now I want to sort this list by the second item of each sublist. So
> the outcome I would like is;
> L2 = [['anotherThing', 'aa'], ['something', 'bb'], ['somethingElse',
> 'cc']]
>
> Is there a way I can use sort for this? Or am I going to have write a
> custom function to sort this out?

You use the `key` argument to .sort():

L2.sort(key=lambda item: item[1])

This sorts L2 by the result of applying the `key` function to each of
the items. Behind the scenes, I believe it does a Schwartzian
transform.

Cheers,
Chris
-- 
Follow the path of the Iguana...
http://rebertia.com

>
> Many thanks.
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