How to Efficiently Merge Pre-Sorted Lists in Python?

Merging Sorted Lists in Python

Suppose you have two pre-sorted lists of objects based on their datetime attributes. The goal is to combine them into a single sorted list. While sorting the combined list appears intuitive, there might be a more efficient approach.

Leveraging Python's Merge Function

The Python standard library provides a merge function in the heapq module, starting with Python 2.6. This function can be utilized to elegantly combine sorted lists while maintaining the initial sorting.

Example:

<code class="python">list1 = [1, 5, 8, 10, 50]
list2 = [3, 4, 29, 41, 45, 49]
from heapq import merge
result = list(merge(list1, list2))
print(result)  # [1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 29, 41, 45, 49, 50]</code>

This approach offers improved efficiency compared to sorting the combined list, making it a more suitable choice for the given task.

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