How to Sort a List of Strings Numerically in Python?

Sorting Strings Numerically

Sorting a list of strings containing numerical characters in Python can lead to unexpected results if not handled correctly. To achieve the desired sorting behavior, it is necessary to convert the strings to numerical values before applying the sort function.

In the example provided, the user attempts to sort a list of string "numbers" by converting them to integers using a loop. However, this only converts the strings to integers within the loop, and the original list1 remains unchanged.

To correctly sort the list numerically, follow these steps:

1. Convert all strings in the list to integers:

list1 = ["1", "10", "3", "22", "23", "4", "2", "200"]
list1 = [int(x) for x in list1]

2. Apply the sort function to the list of integers:

list1.sort()

This will produce the sorted list: ['1', '2', '3', '4', '10', '22', '23', '200'].

Alternatively, a key function can be used to sort the list based on the numerical value of each string without converting them to integers:

list1 = ["1", "10", "3", "22", "23", "4", "2", "200"]
list1.sort(key=int)

This will result in the same sorted order as before.

The above is the detailed content of How to Sort a List of Strings Numerically in Python?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!