Get max value in a two value list Python

Question

I have a list which has two values (name, number) as shown below:

lst = [['ABC', 1.4976557902646848], ['LMN', 1.946130694688788], ['QRS', 3.0039607941124085]]

I want to get the name value of the maximum number in this list. In this example it will be 'QRS'

Don't name your list `list`. It'll override the built-in type. — Andrew Li, Feb 27 '17 at 13:58
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13039192/max-second-element-in-tuples-python might be a closer dupe. — TigerhawkT3, Feb 27 '17 at 13:59

DeepSpace · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-27T13:58:48.360

Use the max built-in function with key kwarg. Refer to the docs of max for more details.

It will return the sublist that has the max number, from which we take the first element (the "name").

li = [['ABC', 1.4976557902646848], ['LMN', 1.946130694688788], ['QRS', 3.0039607941124085]]

print(max(li, key=lambda x: x[1])[0])
# QRS

You can use itemgetter instead of defining the lambda:

from operator import itemgetter

li = [['ABC', 1.4976557902646848], ['LMN', 1.946130694688788], ['QRS', 3.0039607941124085]]

print(max(li, key=itemgetter(1))[0])
# QRS

Get max value in a two value list Python

1 Answers1