How to sort a list of strings on a substring

[Scott]

On Oct 5, 6:05 pm, MRAB <pyt... at mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
> Scott wrote:
> > I create a list of logs called LogList. Here is a sample:
>
> > LogList =
> > ["inbound tcp office 192.168.0.125 inside 10.1.0.91 88",
> > "inbound tcp office 192.168.0.220 inside 10.1.0.31 2967",
> > "inbound udp lab 172.24.0.110 inside 10.1.0.6 161",
> > "inbound udp office 192.168.0.220 inside 10.1.0.13 53"]
>
> > I want to sort the list on index 3 of each string - the first IP
> > Address.
>
> > I only need strings with similar, first IP's to be together. I don't
> > need all of the IP's to be in order. For example:
> > either:
> > SortedList =
> > ["inbound udp lab 172.24.0.110 inside 10.1.0.6 161",
> > "inbound tcp office 192.168.0.220 inside 10.1.0.31 2967",
> > "inbound udp office 192.168.0.220 inside 10.1.0.13 53",
> > "inbound tcp office 192.168.0.125 inside 10.1.0.91 88"]
> > -or-
> > SortedList =
> > ["inbound tcp office 192.168.0.220 inside 10.1.0.31 2967",
> > "inbound udp office 192.168.0.220 inside 10.1.0.13 53",
> > "inbound udp lab 172.24.0.110 inside 10.1.0.6 161",
> > "inbound tcp office 192.168.0.125 inside 10.1.0.91 88"]
> > -or-
> > etc.
>
> > would be fine.
>
> > I'm reading a lot on sort, sorted, cmp, etc. but I'm just not getting
> > how to use an element of a string as a "key" within a list of strings.
> > I'm using Python 2.6.2.
>
> Forget about cmp, just use the 'key' argument of the list's 'sort'
> method or the 'sorted' function (the latter is better if you want to
> keep the original list). The 'key' argument expects a function (anything
> callable, actually) that accepts a single argument (the item) and
> returns a value to be used as the key, and the items will be sorted
> according to that key. In this case you want the items sorted by the
> fourth 'word', so split the item into words and return the one at index
> 3:
>
> def key_word(item):
>      return item.split()[3]
>
> SortedList = sorted(LogList, key=key_word)
>
> If the function is short and simple enough, lambda is often used instead
> of a named function:
>
> SortedList = sorted(LogList, key=lambda item: item.split()[3])

Ok, the lambda worked as advertised. THANK YOU!!

Thanks for giving both a def and lambda example. I'll be saving them.
-Scott