How to sort a string with digits inside?

Question

Hello I have a string list:

['American (New):182', 'American (Traditional):181', 'Asian Fusion:177', 'Brazilian:8', 'Canadian (New):345', 'Caribbean:13']

I need to sort it according to the digits present inside the string. How can I do this?

Python analog of PHP's natsort function (sort a list using a "natural order" algorithm)

How to correctly sort a string with a number inside?

Looked at these and tried applying it to my program but didn't work. Maybe its the ':' thats making them not work properly?

You can create a function that, using a regex, returns the number from the string, then use it as a sorting key. — Swifty, Feb 03 '23 at 15:16
Your don't even really need a regex to do what @Swifty suggests — Pranav Hosangadi, Feb 03 '23 at 15:24

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 03 '23 at 15:26

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use key option of sort parse the number and use as key for sorting

lst=['American (New):182', 'American (Traditional):181', 'Asian Fusion:177', 'Brazilian:8', 'Canadian (New):345', 'Caribbean:13']
lst.sort(key=lambda x:int(x.split(":")[-1]))
print(lst)

['Brazilian:8', 'Caribbean:13', 'Asian Fusion:177', 'American (Traditional):181', 'American (New):182', 'Canadian (New):345']

edited Feb 03 '23 at 15:26

Pranav Hosangadi

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answered Feb 03 '23 at 15:22

geekay

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B Remmelzwaal · Answer 2 · 2023-02-03T15:46:59.610

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I would personally try and use a dictionary for this, but this should do the trick:

listname.sort(key=lambda x: int(x.split(':')[-1]))

edited Feb 03 '23 at 15:46

answered Feb 03 '23 at 15:22

B Remmelzwaal

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I suggest either using `x.rsplit(':')[1]`, or `x.split(':')[-1]`, but not `x.split(':')[1]`, in order to make it more robust to a string that contains extra `':'` in the first part. For instance if `'Asian: Fusion:177'` is a string in the list, you want to isolate the right-most split element, not the element at position 1. – Stef Feb 03 '23 at 15:44
Absolutely true, I will include that. Thanks for the suggestion. – B Remmelzwaal Feb 03 '23 at 15:46

Swifty · Answer 3 · 2023-02-03T15:58:32.950

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You can define a function that extracts the number from each string, then use it as a sorting key:

import re
def string_to_number(my_string):
    return int(re.findall(':(\d+)', my_string)[0])

a=['American (New):182', 'American (Traditional):181', 'Asian Fusion:177', 'Brazilian:8', 'Canadian (New):345', 'Caribbean:13']

sorted_a = sorted(a, key = string_to_number)

edited Feb 03 '23 at 15:58

answered Feb 03 '23 at 15:24

Swifty

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It would be more robust to search for digits preceded by a colon – Pranav Hosangadi Feb 03 '23 at 15:53
Indeed; I based by implementation on there being only one number in the string (but then I could have simply split around the ':' ;) ); I'll update my answer, thanks. – Swifty Feb 03 '23 at 15:57

How to sort a string with digits inside?

3 Answers3