> are there available library or pythonic algorithm for sorting a list > of list depending on the index of the list inside the list of my > choice?
The built-in sorted() function and the sort() method on various collections take an optional "key=function" keyword paramater with which you can pass a function (lambdas are convenient) to extract the bit on which you want to compare: >>> d_list = [ ... ['a', 1, 9], ... ['b', 2, 8], ... ['c', 3, 7], ... ['d', 4, 6], ... ['e', 5, 5], ... ] >>> print sorted.__doc__ sorted(iterable, cmp=None, key=None, reverse=False) --> new sorted list >>> sorted(d_list, key=lambda x: x[2]) # sort by the 3rd item [['e', 5, 5], ['d', 4, 6], ['c', 3, 7], ['b', 2, 8], ['a', 1, 9]] >>> sorted(d_list, key=lambda x: x[1]) # sort by the 2nd item [['a', 1, 9], ['b', 2, 8], ['c', 3, 7], ['d', 4, 6], ['e', 5, 5]] >>> sorted(d_list, key=lambda x: x[0]) # sort by the 1st item [['a', 1, 9], ['b', 2, 8], ['c', 3, 7], ['d', 4, 6], ['e', 5, 5]] -tkc -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
