How to sort a text file numerically while having the number imbedded into other strings

Question

Hi I'm looking for help with sorting my text file in numerical order, I have found How to sort a text file numerically? which shows me how to sort the numbers but in my text file I have the numbers in with other non numeric characters.

My text file might look like this:

Username1, 78 pts
Username2, 64 pts
Username3, 98 pts
Username4, 81 pts
Username5, 43 pts
Username6, 56 pts

The usernames would be different those are just placeholders

I have tried sorting with the numbers at the front of each line but since the answer linked above converts the entire line into integers I only get greeted with an error. If anyone knows how to sort all the whole line using just those numbers that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe

Are all the lines of this exact structure (username-comma-space-number)? — IoaTzimas, Nov 03 '20 at 20:03
This question "[How to sort a list of strings numerically?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3426108/how-to-sort-a-list-of-strings-numerically)" could be useful. — Heikki, Nov 03 '20 at 20:04
I'm not unfortunately, would that work on any python compiler though? — Joliver, Nov 03 '20 at 20:09

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '20 at 20:11

1

Here you go:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

with open('./test.txt', 'r') as fh:
  lines = [l.rstrip() for l in fh.readlines()]

lines = [x.split() for x in lines]
lines.sort(key=lambda x: x[1])
lines = [' '.join(x) for x in lines]

with open('./test.txt', 'w') as fh:
  fh.write('\n'.join(lines))

Sorted file:

Username5, 43 pts
Username6, 56 pts
Username2, 64 pts
Username1, 78 pts
Username4, 81 pts
Username3, 98 pts

answered Nov 03 '20 at 20:11

777moneymaker

697
4
15

Thank you. If I wanted to order it in descending order is there a way to do that? – Joliver Nov 03 '20 at 20:13
use lines.sort(key=lambda x: x[1], reverse=True) – 777moneymaker Nov 03 '20 at 20:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 03 '20 at 20:12

The following should work, with the gived structure of your lines:

with open('so.txt') as f:
    l=f.readlines()

l[-1]=l[-1]+'\n'

with open('so.txt', 'w') as f:
    for i in sorted(l, key=lambda x: x[x.find(' ')+1:x.find('pts')]):
        f.write(i)

Output:

Username5, 43 pts
Username6, 56 pts
Username2, 64 pts
Username1, 78 pts
Username4, 81 pts
Username3, 98 pts

How to sort a text file numerically while having the number imbedded into other strings

2 Answers2