There are a lot of sorting algorithms such as Bubble sort, Insertion sort, Merge sort, Counting sort, etc. But most of the time, we use builtin sorting function to sort an iterable (e.g. list, tuple, dictionary, custom class with iterator etc.).
Today we will sort a given list of strings in several ways to understand the Python 3 built-in sorted function .
Dataset
We will use the 50 U.S. states as our dataset.
states = [
"Alabama", "Alaska", "Arizona", "Arkansas",
"California", "Colorado", "Connecticut",
"Delaware",
"Florida",
"Georgia",
"Hawaii",
"Idaho", "Illinois", "Indiana", "Iowa",
"Kansas", "Kentucky",
"Louisiana",
"Maine", "Maryland", "Massachusetts", "Michigan", "Minnesota",
"Mississippi", "Missouri", "Montana",
"Nebraska", "Nevada", "New Hampshire", "New Jersey", "New Mexico",
"New York", "North Carolina", "North Dakota",
"Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Oregon",
"Pennsylvania",
"Rhode Island",
"South Carolina", "South Dakota",
"Tennessee", "Texas",
"Utah",
"Vermont", "Virginia",
"Washington", "West Virginia", "Wisconsin", "Wyoming"
]
Sorting Techniques
Now we will sort the above states list in different ways.
Sort list alphabetically in ascending order:
To sort the given list alphabetically in ascending order, we pass the list
variable states to the builtin function sorted.
states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana',
'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota',
'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada',
'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon',
'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington',
'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
sorted_states_alphabetic_ascending = sorted(states)
print(sorted_states_alphabetic_ascending)
Output:
['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado', 'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho', 'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana', 'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota', 'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada', 'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York', 'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon', 'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota', 'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington', 'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
Sort list alphabetically in descending order:
To sort the given list alphabetically in descending order, we pass the list
variable states to the builtin function sorted and set the reverse
parameter to True.
states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana',
'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota',
'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada',
'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon',
'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington',
'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
sorted_states_alphabetic_descending = sorted(states, reverse=True)
print(sorted_states_alphabetic_descending)
Output:
['Wyoming', 'Wisconsin', 'West Virginia', 'Washington', 'Virginia', 'Vermont', 'Utah', 'Texas', 'Tennessee', 'South Dakota', 'South Carolina', 'Rhode Island', 'Pennsylvania', 'Oregon', 'Oklahoma', 'Ohio', 'North Dakota', 'North Carolina', 'New York', 'New Mexico', 'New Jersey', 'New Hampshire', 'Nevada', 'Nebraska', 'Montana', 'Missouri', 'Mississippi', 'Minnesota', 'Michigan', 'Massachusetts', 'Maryland', 'Maine', 'Louisiana', 'Kentucky', 'Kansas', 'Iowa', 'Indiana', 'Illinois', 'Idaho', 'Hawaii', 'Georgia', 'Florida', 'Delaware', 'Connecticut', 'Colorado', 'California', 'Arkansas', 'Arizona', 'Alaska', 'Alabama']
Sort list by string length
We can also sort the list using another builtin or custom function as a key
parameter. The function which is mentioned in the key parameter will be
called on each list item before making comparisons.
The following snippet shows how we can sort the given list by the length of the
items in ascending order using the key parameter. Here we use the
builtin len
function as the comparator function.
states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana',
'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota',
'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada',
'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon',
'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington',
'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
sorted_states_length_ascending = sorted(states, key=len)
print(sorted_states_length_ascending)
Output:
['Iowa', 'Ohio', 'Utah', 'Idaho', 'Maine', 'Texas', 'Alaska', 'Hawaii', 'Kansas', 'Nevada', 'Oregon', 'Alabama', 'Arizona', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Indiana', 'Montana', 'Vermont', 'Wyoming', 'Arkansas', 'Colorado', 'Delaware', 'Illinois', 'Kentucky', 'Maryland', 'Michigan', 'Missouri', 'Nebraska', 'New York', 'Oklahoma', 'Virginia', 'Louisiana', 'Minnesota', 'Tennessee', 'Wisconsin', 'California', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'Washington', 'Connecticut', 'Mississippi', 'North Dakota', 'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Dakota', 'Massachusetts', 'New Hampshire', 'West Virginia', 'North Carolina', 'South Carolina']
Suppose we need to sort the above list by the item length in descending order.
In this case, we can set the reverse parameter to False along with the key
parameter.
states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana',
'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota',
'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada',
'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon',
'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington',
'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
sorted_states_length_descending = sorted(states, key=len, reverse=True)
print(sorted_states_length_descending)
Output:
['North Carolina', 'South Carolina', 'Massachusetts', 'New Hampshire', 'West Virginia', 'North Dakota', 'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Dakota', 'Connecticut', 'Mississippi', 'California', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'Washington', 'Louisiana', 'Minnesota', 'Tennessee', 'Wisconsin', 'Arkansas', 'Colorado', 'Delaware', 'Illinois', 'Kentucky', 'Maryland', 'Michigan', 'Missouri', 'Nebraska', 'New York', 'Oklahoma', 'Virginia', 'Alabama', 'Arizona', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Indiana', 'Montana', 'Vermont', 'Wyoming', 'Alaska', 'Hawaii', 'Kansas', 'Nevada', 'Oregon', 'Idaho', 'Maine', 'Texas', 'Iowa', 'Ohio', 'Utah']
Sort list by using lambda function
We can use the lambda function in the key parameter.
The following snippet shows how we can sort the given list by the number
of a's in the state name in descending order.
states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana',
'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota',
'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada',
'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon',
'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington',
'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
sorted_states_a_descending = sorted(states,
key=lambda x: x.lower().count('a'),
reverse=True)
print(sorted_states_a_descending)
Output:
['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arkansas', 'Arizona', 'California', 'Delaware', 'Hawaii', 'Indiana', 'Kansas', 'Louisiana', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada', 'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Oklahoma', 'Pennsylvania', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota', 'Colorado', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Idaho', 'Iowa', 'Maine', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota', 'New Hampshire', 'Rhode Island', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Virginia', 'Washington', 'West Virginia', 'Connecticut', 'Illinois', 'Kentucky', 'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York', 'Ohio', 'Oregon', 'Tennessee', 'Vermont', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
Here in the lambda function, we traverse each name using the variable x.
Then we convert the state name into lowercase letters and count the number of
the letter a in each state name.
Sort list by using custom comparator method using cmp_to_key
Apart from the lambda function, we can also use a custom function in
the key parameter. To do that, we use
the cmp_to_key
from the functools module to enable us to use a custom comparator.
Suppose, we can sort the given list by the string length in descending order. If two states have the same length, we want to place the states in alphabetically descending order.
For example, Ohio will be placed before Alabama, as it is smaller. On the
other hand, Utah and Ohio have the same length. But in this case, we want
to place Utah before Ohio as Utah is alphabetically larger than Ohio.
from functools import cmp_to_key
def compare_two_states(state_1, state_2):
if len(state_1) < len(state_2):
return -1
elif len(state_1) > len(state_2):
return 1
if state_1 > state_2:
return -1
elif state_1 < state_2:
return 1
return 0
states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana',
'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota',
'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada',
'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon',
'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington',
'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming']
sorted_states_custom = sorted(states,
key=cmp_to_key(compare_two_states))
print(sorted_states_custom)
Output:
['Utah', 'Ohio', 'Iowa', 'Texas', 'Maine', 'Idaho', 'Oregon', 'Nevada', 'Kansas', 'Hawaii', 'Alaska', 'Wyoming', 'Vermont', 'Montana', 'Indiana', 'Georgia', 'Florida', 'Arizona', 'Alabama', 'Virginia', 'Oklahoma', 'New York', 'Nebraska', 'Missouri', 'Michigan', 'Maryland', 'Kentucky', 'Illinois', 'Delaware', 'Colorado', 'Arkansas', 'Wisconsin', 'Tennessee', 'Minnesota', 'Louisiana', 'Washington', 'New Mexico', 'New Jersey', 'California', 'Mississippi', 'Connecticut', 'South Dakota', 'Rhode Island', 'Pennsylvania', 'North Dakota', 'West Virginia', 'New Hampshire', 'Massachusetts', 'South Carolina', 'North Carolina']
The custom comparator should return an integer/float value that follows the following pattern:
- return a negative value (
<0) when the left item should be sorted before the right item. - return a positive value (
>0) when the left item should be sorted after the right item. - return zero (
0) when both the left and the right items have the same weight and should be treated equally.
Practice challenges
Medium difficulty challenges:
Reference
- Sorting Algorithm Comparisons
- Bubble sort
- Insertion sort
- Merge sort
- Counting sort
- U.S. state
- Python documenation on Sorting
- Python documentation on built-in sorted function
- Python documentation on
cmp_to_key - Stackoverflow answer on custom operator
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