Using namedtuples field names for column indices in a list of lists

[Ethan Furman]

On 01/09/2017 07:02 PM, Deborah Swanson wrote:
> Erik wrote, on January 09, 2017 5:47 PM

>> As people keep saying, the object you have called 'records'
>> is a *list*
>> of namedtuple objects. It is not a namedtuple.
>>
>> IIRC, you create it using a list comprehension which creates the
>> records. A list comprehension always creates a list.
>
> Well no. The list is created with:
>
> records.extend(Record._make(row) for row in rows)
>
> I'm new to both namedtuples and list comprehensions, so I'm not exactly
> sure if this statement is a list comprehension. It looks like it could
> be. In any case I recreated records in IDLE and got
>
>--> type(records)
> <class 'list'>
>
> So it's a class, derived from list? (Not sure what the 'list' means.)

On the one hand, Deborah, I applaud your perseverance.  On the other, it seems as if you trying to run before you can walk.  I know tutorials can be boring, but you really should go through one so you have a basic understanding of the fundamentals.

Working in the REPL (the python console), we can see:

Python 3.4.0 (default, Apr 11 2014, 13:05:18)
...
--> type(list)
<class 'type'>
-->
--> type(list())
<class 'list'>
--> type([1, 2, 3])
<class 'list'>

So the `list` type is 'type', and the type of list instances is 'class list'.

Your records variable is an instance of a list filled with instances of a namedtuple, 'Record'.  One cannot sort a namedtuple, but one can sort a list of namedtuples -- which is what you are doing.

As I said earlier, I admire your persistence -- but take some time and learn the basic vocabulary as that will make it much easier for you to ask questions, and for us to give you meaningful answers.

--
~Ethan~