How to Sort Lists of Strings in Python: A Comprehensive Guide

Sorting Lists of Strings in Python

One of the common tasks in programming is sorting text data. In Python, sorting a list of strings can be achieved using various techniques.

Basic Sorting

The simplest method is to use the sort() method on the list itself. This sorts the list in-place, modifying the original order.

mylist = ["b", "C", "A"]
mylist.sort()

Sorted Copy

If you want to create a sorted copy of the list without modifying the original, use the sorted() function.

for x in sorted(mylist):
    print(x)

Locale-Sensitive Sorting

By default, Python performs a case-sensitive, ASCII-only sort. To consider locale-specific rules, use the key parameter with the cmp_to_key() helper from functools.

import locale
from functools import cmp_to_key
sorted(mylist, key=cmp_to_key(locale.strcoll))

Custom Locale Sorting

You can specify a custom locale for sorting. For example, to sort according to English rules with UTF-8 encoding:

import locale
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'en_US.UTF-8')
# ...

Case-Insensitive Sorting

Avoid using methods like lower() for case-insensitive sorting because they only work for ASCII characters. Instead, utilize locale-sensitive sorting with tools like strcoll().

Incorrect Case-Insensitive Sorting

# Incorrect because it uses lower(), which is limited to ASCII
mylist.sort(key=lambda x: x.lower())

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