✏️ Explanatory Question
There are several ways to sort a list in Python, depending on your specific requirements.
The most straightforward way to sort a list is to use the built-in sorted function. The sorted function takes a list as an argument and returns a new list containing the elements of the original list, sorted in ascending order:
# Original list
original_list = [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5]
# Sorted list
sorted_list = sorted(original_list)
print("Original list:", original_list)
print("Sorted list:", sorted_list)
Output:
Original list: [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5]
Sorted list: [1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 9]
If you need to sort the list in descending order, you can pass the reverse=True argument to the sorted function:
# Sorted list in descending order
sorted_list = sorted(original_list, reverse=True)
print("Sorted list in descending order:", sorted_list)
Output:
Sorted list in descending order: [9, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1]
Another way to sort a list is to use the sort method of the list object. The sort method sorts the list in-place and returns None, so you need to call it on the list you want to sort:
# Sort the original list in-place
original_list.sort()
print("Original list:", original_list)
Output:
Original list: [1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 9]
Just like the sorted function, you can also sort the list in descending order using the sort method by passing the reverse=True argument:
# Sort the original list in-place in descending order
original_list.sort(reverse=True)
print("Original list:", original_list)
Output:
Original list: [9, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1]
Note that the sort method modifies the list in-place, so if you need to keep the original list intact, you should use the sorted function instead.