Python list sort()

The sort function can be used to sort a list in ascending, descending or user defined order.

Sorting list of integer in python

Example 1:

sorting list of integer in ascending order.

list_of_numbers = [10, 30, 44, 22]
# Sorting list of Integers in ascending
list_of_numbers.sort()
print(list_of_numbers)

Output:

[10, 22, 30, 44]

sorting list of integer in descending order.

list_of_numbers = [10, 30, 44, 22] 
# Sorting list of Integers in ascending
list_of_numbers.sort(reverse=True) 
print(list_of_numbers)

Output:

[44, 30, 22, 10]

Example 2:

Sort the list of string/words alphabetically in python

Sort the list in ascending order

cars = ['Ford', 'BMW', 'Volvo']

cars.sort()
print(cars)

Output: ['BMW', 'Ford', 'Volvo']

Sort the list descending order

cars = ['Ford', 'BMW', 'Volvo']
cars.sort(reverse=True)
print(cars)

Output: ['Volvo', 'Ford', 'BMW']

Sort the list of words by the length of the word:

cars = ['Ford', 'Mitsubishi', 'BMW', 'VW']
cars.sort(key=lambda word: len(word))
print(cars)

Output: ['VW', 'BMW', 'Ford', 'Mitsubishi']

Example 3:

Sort a list of dictionaries based on the "year" value of the dictionaries:

cars = [
  {'car': 'Ford', 'year': 2005},
  {'car': 'Mitsubishi', 'year': 2000},
  {'car': 'BMW', 'year': 2019},
  {'car': 'VW', 'year': 2011}
]

cars.sort(key=lambda element: element['year'])

print(cars)

Output:

[{'car': 'Mitsubishi', 'year': 2000}, {'car': 'Ford', 'year': 2005}, {'car': 'VW', 'year': 2011}, {'car': 'BMW', 'year': 2019}]