for what it's worth. and it is approx. five times quicker than the bubblesort i wrote to begin with on a 286-word highly unordered list, so i wasn't wasting my time after all...
______________________________________________________________________ import time file_input = open('wordlist.txt', 'r') list_initial = [] no_lines = 0 for line in file_input: list_initial.append(line) no_lines += 1 no_lines_2 = no_lines print list_initial file_input.close() raw_input('press enter to sort: ') list_final = [] temp_str = "" time1 = time.clock() for j in range(no_lines_2): temp_str = 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz' for k in range(no_lines): if temp_str > list_initial[k]: temp_str = list_initial[k] list_initial.remove(temp_str) list_final.append(temp_str) no_lines -= 1 time2 = time.clock() final_time = time2 - time1 print list_final print print 'number of seconds for sort list: ', final_time print print 'number of words in list: ', no_lines_2 ___________________________________________________________________ thanks again for your help. that sorted out something that had really been bugging me. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list