Does Python's `list.sort()` Return a Sorted List?

Sorting Lists in Python: Understanding the Return Value of "list.sort()"

In Python, the method list.sort() sorts a list in place, which means it modifies the original list instead of returning a new sorted list. This behavior may be surprising to programmers coming from other languages where sorting methods typically return new lists.

In the code snippet you provided:

def findUniqueWords(theList):
    ...
    answer = newList.sort()
    return answer

The call to newList.sort() sorts the newList in place, but since the sort method doesn't return anything, the variable answer is assigned None. As a result, the function returns None instead of the sorted list.

To return the sorted list, you need to explicitly sort newList and then return it:

def findUniqueWords(theList):
    ...
    newList.sort()
    return newList

This code will sort the newList and return the modified list as the result of the function.

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