Python :sort list of dictionaries based on key

Question

I have a list of dictionaries

[{'abc':1},{'abcd':2},{'ab':1}]

Based on length of key list has to sorted

[{'abcd':2},{'abc':1},{'ab':1}]

Have you seen this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72899/how-do-i-sort-a-list-of-dictionaries-by-values-of-the-dictionary-in-python?rq=1 — EdChum, Mar 05 '15 at 10:47
Where is your code, and what exactly is the problem with it? — jonrsharpe, Mar 05 '15 at 10:48
@EdChum my keys are dynamic not the way they specified in the link — user3522967, Mar 05 '15 at 10:49
you can't sort regular dictionaries, except using ordereddict. — Marcin, Mar 05 '15 at 10:50
@Marcin: this is sorting a *list* **containing** dictionaries. — Martijn Pieters, Mar 05 '15 at 10:57

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 05 '15 at 10:55

1

If you want to sort by the longest key:

l = [{'abc':1},{'abcd':2},{'ab':1}]
l.sort(key=lambda x: len(next(iter(x))), reverse=True)
print(l)

edited Mar 05 '15 at 10:55

Martijn Pieters

answered Mar 05 '15 at 10:52

`lambda x: len(x.keys()[0])` would work too as `.keys()` return list of keys. – Tanveer Alam Mar 05 '15 at 10:54
@TanveerAlam: not in Python 3, where `dict.keys()` returns a *dictionary view*. `next(iter(x))` is better as it works in both versions. – Martijn Pieters Mar 05 '15 at 10:54
@TanveerAlam, not in python 3, I changed to `iter` anyway – Padraic Cunningham Mar 05 '15 at 10:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '15 at 11:02

0

If u like to sort by 1st key it's gonna be this:

l.sort(lambda a, b: -cmp(len(a.keys()[0]), len(b.keys()[0])))

However if you want to sort by max key, here the answer:

def maxKeyLen(d): return max(len(k) for k in d.keys())
l.sort(lambda a, b: -cmp(maxKeyLen(a), maxKeyLen(b)))

answered Mar 05 '15 at 11:02

Mux

when we haev list of dictionaries inside dictionaries [{'abc':{'count':1}},{'abcd:{'count:2'}'}], sorting this list based on 'count' , is it possible – user3522967 Mar 05 '15 at 11:22

2 Answers2