Python sorting a file by frequency

Question

I have a file that contains a list of words like:

word1 34

word2 12

word3 6

word4 498

word5 50

I want to sort the file by the numerical value. My code:

sortedfreqlist = sorted(freqlist, key=operator.itemgetter(1), reverse=True)

Doesn't quite work because it sorts the numbers as words i.e 12 comes before 6 etc.

Any ideas how I can do this?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 07 '11 at 20:35

3

The sorting is not working because your values are not of a numeric type, thus lexicographic sorting is applied. Be sure to convert your sort key to to a number, for example like this:

sortedfreqlist = sorted(freqlist, key=lambda item: int(item[1]), reverse=True)

answered May 07 '11 at 20:35

Jim Brissom

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This is the correct solution if all items in the second column can be interpreted as ints. I misunderstood the question. – Paul May 07 '11 at 20:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

0

Search "natural sort python" in your favorite search engine and you'll find many different solutions.

Here is one at activestate.

Here is a nice tidy solution at SO.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered May 07 '11 at 20:34

Paul

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Python sorting a file by frequency

2 Answers2