How can I sort a string of characters in python?

Question

I cannot find an answer elsewhere on this site, which is why I am asking. My answer is different as it contains alpha-numeric values and will not work with any integer based solution here is a sample of my string:

What can i do to sort these in ascending/descending order, so far i have tried sorted() as it is used for stings, the output of this is ['0', '1', '6', '6', '8'] ['X', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X']. i want each separate value to be ordered and not individual characters. Any help is appreciated.

@davedwards its not...this does not include enitrely integers, also contains `XXXXX` values...please read the question — EcSync, Feb 06 '19 at 07:38
change your list or whatever this is to some python object for people to copy into their python ide. otherweise we don't know if your elments should be integers, strings or whatever object you might think of. — Florian H, Feb 06 '19 at 07:41

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 06 '19 at 07:25

1

If you want to sort all these strings by their integer value then you can do this :

sorted(arr,key=lambda x:int(x))

Where arr is the list of all those strings.

answered Feb 06 '19 at 07:25

Anonymous

335
1
2
17

2

`key=int` would do as well. – gmds Feb 06 '19 at 07:27
This is really helpful thanks! however i still have issues dealing with `XXXXX` values – EcSync Feb 06 '19 at 07:30
And what are these XXXXX values? Will you please elaborate. – Anonymous Feb 06 '19 at 07:34
@Anonymous they are important to the data still, cannot explain exactly what they are – EcSync Feb 06 '19 at 07:39

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '19 at 07:25

1

Using sorted

Ex:

s = """01768
01785
01799
01804
01818
01821
01835
01849
01852
01866"""

print("Ascending")
print( "\n".join(map(str, sorted(map(int, s.splitlines())))) )
print("---")
print("Descending")
print( "\n".join(map(str, sorted(map(int, s.splitlines()), reverse=True))) )

Output:

answered Feb 06 '19 at 07:25

Rakesh

81,458
17
76
113

thanks for the response, however when i run this it makes no difference to the output, perhaps it is to do with my `XXXXX` values? – EcSync Feb 06 '19 at 10:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 06 '19 at 07:39

1

Using this answer as a guide Does Python have a built in function for string natural sort?

alist = ['01768',
'01785',
'01799',
'01804',
'01818',
'01821',
'01835',
'01849',
'01852',
'01866',
'XXXXX']

from natsort import natsorted, ns
r = natsorted(alist, key=lambda y: y.lower())

>>>print(r)
['01768', '01785', '01799', '01804', '01818', '01821', '01835', '01849', '01852', '01866', 'XXXXX']

answered Feb 06 '19 at 07:39

chickity china chinese chicken

7,709
2
20
49

Are you sure this is the correct import? I have pip installed correctly however it cannot find `natsorted` i tried `import natsort` on its own, along with `r = natsort(etc)` but natsort is not callable – EcSync Feb 06 '19 at 08:20
1

Sorry yes `natsort` is not a built-in it needs to be installed by with `pip` or `python -m pip install natsort` – chickity china chinese chicken Feb 06 '19 at 08:24

How can I sort a string of characters in python?

3 Answers3