Sort list with keys/values in alphabetical order

Question

I am trying to get a graph to list A-Z down the Y axis, with A at the top, Z at the bottom (near (0,0)).

It's a cobbled mess right now, since I'm learning how to do this, but here's the relevant code:

from collections import Counter
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt; plt.rcdefaults()
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from collections import OrderedDict
from operator import itemgetter

myFile = "D:/User/Documents/Data/English Words/words_alpha.txt"

ie_prefix = {}
ie_prefix.setdefault("letter", [])
ie_prefix.setdefault("word",[])
ie_prefix.setdefault("beforec",[])
ie_prefix_sorted = {}

def get_words(file_import):
    global total_words, ie_after_c, ie_after_not_c
  #if I don't do this and just keep the below, I get an error: 'total_words' is not defined when running the print(..., total_words, "total words and", ...) line.
    total_words = 0
    ie_after_not_c = 0
    ie_after_c = 0
    results = []
    with open(file_import) as inputfile:
        for line in inputfile:
            total_words = total_words + 1
            if line.find("ie") != -1:
                pos = line.find("ie")
                ie_prefix["letter"].append(line[pos-1:pos])
                ie_prefix["word"].append(line.strip('\n'))
                if line[pos-1:pos] == "c":
                    ie_prefix["beforec"].append(line.strip('\n'))
                    ie_after_c += 1
                elif line[pos-1:pos] != "c":
                    ie_after_not_c += 1

    ie_prefix_sorted = OrderedDict(sorted(ie_prefix.items()))
    return ie_prefix, total_words, ie_after_not_c, ie_after_c, ie_prefix_sorted


def create_graph(total_words, y_axis, x_axis):
    y_pos = np.arange(len(y_axis))
    fig, ax = plt.subplots()
    plt.barh(y_pos, x_axis, align='center', alpha=0.5)
    plt.yticks(y_pos, y_axis)
    plt.ylabel('Usage')
    plt.title('I before E rule')
    plt.legend()
    plt.show()

get_words(myFile)

# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20316299/formatting-output-of-counter
ie_count = Counter(ie_prefix["letter"])

ie_count_sorted = sorted(ie_count)  #sorted(ie_count.items()) ## THis will just sort the KEYS I believe
ie_letters = list(ie_count_sorted)

###    
## How to use the SORTED IE Count in the graph, so it goes from A-Z where A is at the TOP, and Z is at the BOTTOM of Y-Axis (Z closest to (0,0))?  
create_graph(total, ie_count, ie_count.values())

FYI here's print(ie_count):

Counter({'r': 2417, 't': 1771, 'l': 1304, 'f': 1034, 'd': 778, 'h': 765, 'p': 753, 'c': 729, 'n': 647, 'm': 536, 'g': 492, 's': 470, 'k': 443, 'v': 273, 'b': 260, 'z': 154, 'u': 134, 'w': 93, 'o': 75, 'x': 73, 'y': 49, 'e': 29, 'a': 26, '': 3, 'j': 2, 'i': 1})

I can't figure out how to rearrange ie_count to be in alphabetical order, keeping the values (2417, 171, etc.) with the keys (letters).

I'm learning Python, so may have missed something very obvious (such as what the name/type of what I'm trying to do is). I'd appreciate any notes on such, or reasons for downvotes. — BruceWayne, Jul 16 '17 at 21:54
I haven't downvoted but instead of the `get_words` function (a bit unnecessary because we don't have access to your file so you could simply remove it from the question) you could just insert your `ie_count` instead **and** the function `create_graph` would be interesting — MSeifert, Jul 16 '17 at 22:04
@MSeifert - Ah, sorry! Didn't realize I left that out. I'll edit. FYI the words list is [this file](https://github.com/dwyl/english-words/blob/master/words_alpha.txt) from GitHub. — BruceWayne, Jul 16 '17 at 22:09

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 16 '17 at 22:01

You can sort the .items and unpack the keys and values with zip:

from collections import Counter
from operator import itemgetter

ie_count = Counter({'r': 2417, 't': 1771, 'l': 1304, 'f': 1034, 'd': 778, 'h': 765, 'p': 753, 'c': 729, 'n': 647, 'm': 536, 'g': 492, 's': 470, 'k': 443, 'v': 273, 'b': 260, 'z': 154, 'u': 134, 'w': 93, 'o': 75, 'x': 73, 'y': 49, 'e': 29, 'a': 26, '': 3, 'j': 2, 'i': 1})

cnts_sorted = sorted(ie_count.items(), key=itemgetter(0))
print(cnts_sorted)
# [('', 3), ('a', 26), ('b', 260), ('c', 729), ('d', 778), ('e', 29), 
#  ('f', 1034), ('g', 492), ('h', 765), ('i', 1), ('j', 2), ('k', 443), 
#  ('l', 1304), ('m', 536), ('n', 647), ('o', 75), ('p', 753), ('r', 2417), 
#  ('s', 470), ('t', 1771), ('u', 134), ('v', 273), ('w', 93), ('x', 73), 
#  ('y', 49), ('z', 154)]


letters, vals = zip(*cnts_sorted)
print(letters)
# ('', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n',
#  'o', 'p', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z')
print(vals)
# (3, 26, 260, 729, 778, 29, 1034, 492, 765, 1, 2, 443, 1304, 536, 647, 75,
# 753, 2417, 470, 1771, 134, 273, 93, 73, 49, 154)

Oh man, that's great! I've seen `zip()` before, but will look more in to it. The final piece is how to rearrange backwards. I tried `reversed(letters)`/`reversed(vals)`, but get "TypeError: object of type 'reversed' has no len()`. — BruceWayne, Jul 16 '17 at 22:06
what do you mean by "rearrange backwards"? Do you mean sorted in reverse order? That would be as simple as passing `reverse=True` to `sorted`: `sorted(ie_count.items(), key=itemgetter(0), reverse=True)`. Or just use "slicing" to reverse the tuples: `reversed_letters = letters[::-1]` and `reversed_vals = vals[::-1]` — MSeifert, Jul 16 '17 at 22:09
Ah, that'll do it! Thanks so much! :D (I went with adding `reverse = True` to `sorted()`. — BruceWayne, Jul 16 '17 at 22:11

Sort list with keys/values in alphabetical order

1 Answers1