Better way to sort list of lists

Asked Mar 15 '17 at 14:52

Active Mar 15 '17 at 14:52

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I have a list of lists that looks like this one:

big_list = [['12345', 'azs'], ['ABC', 'something'], ['tgrgd', 'ABC'], ['something', '12345']

The lists inside big_list always contain only 2 strings.

I want to sort it as follows:

big_list (or new_list) = [['tgrgd', 'ABC'], ['ABC', 'something'], ['something', '12345'], ['12345', 'azs']]

The second string of a list is equal to the first of next list. It is impossible to have the same string in more than 2 lists, so that won't be a problem.

I am currently addressing the problem by counting occurrences of each string to find the first and last items and then looping through my list to sort it, but I know this is a wrong approach and would like to improve it.

asked Mar 15 '17 at 14:52

EliseB

5

Please post some code showing what you tried so far? – running.t Mar 15 '17 at 14:54
Anyway I would try using some [reverse map](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1456373/two-way-reverse-map). – running.t Mar 15 '17 at 14:56
How do you determine which one will come first? – Mark Ransom Mar 15 '17 at 14:58
Use dictionaries. Put the first string as a key and the second as value. That way it will be super fast finding the next string. – Mar 15 '17 at 14:58

Better way to sort list of lists

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