How To Sort In Python

Python lists have a built-in list.sort() method that modifies the list. There is also a sorted() built-in function that builds a new sorted list from an iterable.

In this article, we will see the various techniques for sorting data using Python.

sorted()

This built-in function will sort list, set, dictionary, tuples, strings and return a new sorted list. It can take any iterable as argument.

>>> sorted("dhucysa")
['a', 'c', 'd', 'h', 's', 'u', 'y']
>>> sorted([3, 5, 54, 2, 8, 32])
[2, 3, 5, 8, 32, 54]
>>> sorted((2, 5, 3))
[2, 3, 5]
>>> sorted({1:'bhu', 5:'dhe', 2:'re'})
[1, 2, 5]
>>>

sort()

sort() is a built-in function for list. It cannot be used on other iterables.

>>> li = [3, 5, 2, 1]
>>> li.sort()
>>> li
[1, 2, 3, 5]
>>> li = (3, 5, 2, 1)
>>> li.sort()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'sort'