To sort a list of strings in alphabetical order in Python, you can use the sort method on the list. This method will sort the list in place, meaning that it will modify the original list and you won’t need to create a new list. You can also use the sorted function to sort a list. This function returns a new sorted list, without modifying the original list.
1. Quick Examples of Sorting List Alphabetically
If you are in a hurry, below are some quick examples of sorting lists in alphabetical order.
# Quick examples of sorting list alphabetically
# Example 1: Sort list by alphabetical order
technology = ['Java','Hadoop','Spark','Pandas','Pyspark','NumPy']
technology.sort()
# Example 2: Sort the list in reverse alphabetical order
technology.sort(reverse=True)
# Example 3: Sorts the array in ascending according to
sort_tech = sorted(technology)
2. Python Sort List Alphabetically
By using the list.sort() function you can order a list of stings in alphabetical order, it takes key and reverse as parameters, key is a function to specify the sorting criteria(s), reverse is a boolean value that specifies whether the list should be sorted in asc (False) or desc (True) order. The default is reverse=False.
Here is an example of how you can use the sort method to order a list of strings in alphabetical order.
# Create input list
technology = ['Java','Hadoop','Spark','Pandas','Pyspark','NumPy']
print("Original list:\n",technology)
# Sort the list in ascending order
technology.sort()
print("Sorted list in ascending order:\n",technology)
Yields below output.
Now, the technology list has been sorted in alphabetical (ascending) order.
3. Sort in Reverse Alphabetical Order
To sort a list of strings in reverse alphabetical order, you can use the sort() method with the reverse argument set its value to reverse=True.
Now, the technology list has been sorted in reverse alphabetical order. The reverse=True parameter in the sort() method is used to achieve this.
# Sort the list in reverse alphabetical order
technology.sort(reverse=True)
print("Sorted list in descending order:\n", technology)
# Output:
# Original list:
# ['Java', 'Hadoop', 'Spark', 'Pandas', 'Pyspark', 'NumPy']
# Sorted list in descending order:
# ['Spark', 'Pyspark', 'Pandas', 'NumPy', 'Java', 'Hadoop']
4. Use sorted()
The sorted() function in Python is used to sort a sequence (such as a list, tuple) in alphabetical order. The function returns a new sorted list, leaving the original sequence unchanged. Here, is an example.
# Create input list
technology = ['Java','Hadoop','Spark','Pandas','Pyspark','NumPy']
print("Original list:\n",technology)
# Using sorted()
sort_tech = sorted(technology)
print("Sorted list:\n",sort_tech)
# Output:
# Original list:
# ['Java', 'Hadoop', 'Spark', 'Pandas', 'Pyspark', 'NumPy']
# Sorted list:
# ['Hadoop', 'Java', 'NumPy', 'Pandas', 'Pyspark', 'Spark']Frequently Asked Questions on Python Sort List Alphabetically
To sort a list alphabetically in Python, you can use either the sort() method for in-place sorting or the sorted() function for creating a new sorted list.
The sort() method sorts the list in-place, modifying the original list. The sorted() function creates a new sorted list without modifying the original list.
To sort a list in reverse alphabetical order in Python, you can use the sort() method with the reverse=True parameter for in-place sorting, or use the sorted() function with the reverse=True parameter to create a new sorted list.
Technically, you can use the same sorting methods to sort a list of numbers alphabetically, but keep in mind that this may not be the most meaningful or intuitive way to sort numeric values. Sorting numbers alphabetically treats them as strings, and the sorting will be based on their string representations.
To reverse the order of an already sorted list in Python, you can use the reverse() method for in-place reversal or the [::-1] slicing notation to create a new reversed list.
You can sort a list of strings case-insensitively in Python by using the key parameter with a lambda function that converts each string to lowercase. This ensures that the sorting is done without considering the case of the letters.
Conclusion
In this article, I have explained how to sort a list alphabetically in python, First, I have covered using list.sort() function and python built-in function sorted().
Happy Learning !!
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