Sort by name and rank

Question

So a while ago I asked this question here: Sorting lists in python

I have this code here:

def sort(names, rank):
    lst=[]
    for x in range(0, len(names)):
        lst.append((int(rank[x]), names[x]))
    lst.sort(key=lambda x: (-x[0],len(x[1])) )
    newArr = []
    for z in range(0, len(lst)):
        row = lst[z]
        newArr.append(row[1] + " " + str(row[0]))
    return newArr

But I also need to sort name more, if the length of the names are the same I need the one with the capital letter to come first. Any ideas?

A style hint for you: replace `for z in range(0, len(lst))` with `for row in lst`. Much simpler and more readable. — Mark Ransom, Aug 13 '12 at 22:14

Brenden Brown · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-14T23:37:04.493

1

Add another entry into the tuple for the third condition.

def sort(names, rank):
    lst=[]
    for x in range(0, len(names)):
        lst.append((int(rank[x]), names[x]))
    lst.sort(key=lambda x: (-x[0],len(x[1]), ord(x[1][0])) )
    newArr = []
    for z in range(0, len(lst)):
        row = lst[z]
        newArr.append(row[1] + " " + str(row[0]))
    return newArr

I rewrote your code, making some style changes:

def sort(names, rank):
    lst=[]
    for index, name in enumerate(names):
        lst.append((int(rank[index]), name))
    lst.sort(key=lambda x: (-x[0],len(x[1]),  ord(x[1][0])))
    output = []
    for row in lst:
        output.append(row[1] + " " + str(row[0]))
    return output

I personally find the second approach to be a little more readable.

edited Aug 14 '12 at 23:37

answered Aug 13 '12 at 21:58

Brenden Brown

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`sort(["fabian", "Fabian", "bob"],["1", "1", "2"])` still comes out with `fabian` before `Fabian` – FabianCook Aug 13 '12 at 22:02
Replace `x[1]` with `x[1][0]`. – Mark Ransom Aug 13 '12 at 22:16
Yeah, just figured that out. Thanks Mark. – Brenden Brown Aug 13 '12 at 22:17
1

Rather than using your `is_capital` function, why not use the builtin `ord` function? e.g. `key=lambda x: (-x[0], len(x[1]), ord(x[1][0]))` This will resort to sorting alphabetically by first letter only. (Of course, you could just do `(-x[0], len(x[1]), x[1])` too...) – mgilson Aug 13 '12 at 23:21
I forgot about the ord() function. Thanks. – Brenden Brown Aug 13 '12 at 23:56

Sort by name and rank

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