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method that will sort the list alphanumerically, ascending, by default:
thislist = ["orange", "mango", "kiwi", "pineapple", "banana"] thislist.sort()
print(thislist)thislist = [100, 50, 65, 82, 23] thislist.sort()
print(thislist)Formula
To sort descending, use the keyword argument reverse = Truethislist = ["orange", "mango", "kiwi", "pineapple", "banana"]
Formula
thislist.sort(reverse = True)print(thislist)thislist = [100, 50, 65, 82, 23]
Formula
thislist.sort(reverse = True)print(thislist)You can also customize your own function by using the keyword argument key = function. The function will return a number that will be used to sort the list (the lowest number first):
Sort the list based on how close the number is to 50:
def myfunc(n):
return abs(n - 50)
thislist = [100, 50, 65, 82, 23]
thislist.sort(key =
myfunc)
print(thislist)method is case sensitive, resulting in all capital letters being sorted before lower case letters:
Case sensitive sorting can give an unexpected result: thislist = ["banana", "Orange", "Kiwi", "cherry"] thislist.sort()
print(thislist)Formula
Luckily we can use built - in functions as key functions when sorting a list.
So if you want a case - insensitive sort function, use str.lower as a key function:Formula
Perform a case - insensitive sort of the list:thislist = ["banana", "Orange", "Kiwi", "cherry"] thislist.sort(key = str.lower)
print(thislist)What if you want to reverse the order of a list, regardless of the alphabet?
method reverses the current sorting order of the elements.
Reverse the order of the list items: thislist = ["banana", "Orange", "Kiwi", "cherry"] thislist.reverse()
print(thislist)