How do I sort a list of strings by key=len
first then by key=str
?
I've tried the following but it's not giving me the desired sort:
>>> ls = ['foo','bar','foobar','barbar']
>>>
>>> for i in sorted(ls):
... print i
...
bar
barbar
foo
foobar
>>>
>>> for i in sorted(ls, key=len):
... print i
...
foo
bar
foobar
barbar
>>>
>>> for i in sorted(ls, key=str):
... print i
...
bar
barbar
foo
foobar
I need to get:
bar
foo
barbar
foobar
Define a key function that returns a tuple in which the first item is len(str)
and the second one is the string itself. Tuples are then compared lexicographically. That is, first the lengths are compared; if they are equal then the strings get compared.
In [1]: ls = ['foo','bar','foobar','barbar']
In [2]: sorted(ls, key=lambda s: (len(s), s))
Out[2]: ['bar', 'foo', 'barbar', 'foobar']
The answer from root is correct, but you don't really need a lambda:
>>> def key_function(x):
return len(x), str(x)
>>> sorted(['foo','bar','foobar','barbar'], key=key_function)
['bar', 'foo', 'barbar', 'foobar']
In addtion, there is a alternate approach takes advantage of sort stability which lets you sort in multiple passes (with the secondary key first):
>>> ls = ['foo','bar','foobar','barbar']
>>> ls.sort(key=str) # secondary key
>>> ls.sort(key=len) # primary key
See the Sorting HOWTO for a good tutorial on Python sorting techniques.
If you don't want to use lambda:
from operator import itemgetter
ls = ['foo','bar','foobar','barbar']
print sorted([ [x,len(x)] for x in ls ] ,key=itemgetter(1,0))
# print [s[0] for s in sorted([ [x,len(x)] for x in ls ] ,key=itemgetter(1,0))]
Another form that works without a lambda:
>>> [t[1] for t in sorted((len(s),s) for s in ls)]
['bar', 'foo', 'barbar', 'foobar']