How to sort words alphabetically in Python
Example
Let’s say we have a list of fruits: fruits = ["Banana", "Apple", "Orange", "Kiwi", "Jackfruit", "Mulberry"] and we want to sort the list of fruits alphabetically.
Python provides us with built-in functions to sort them alphabetically. We can use either the sorted() function or the sort() method to sort the list.
sorted(): This returns a new sorted list without modifying the original list.sort(): This sorts the list in place, modifying the original list.
The sorted() method
First, we'll learn how to use the sorted() function:
fruits = [ "Banana", "Apple", "Orange", "Kiwi", "Jackfruit", "Mulberry" ]sorted_fruits = sorted(fruits)print("Sorted fruits:", sorted_fruits)
In the code above, we use the sorted() method of Python, which will create a new list sorted_fruits containing the sorted version of fruits without modifying the original list.
The sort() method
Now, we’ll understand another method called the sort() method:
fruits = [ "Banana", "Apple", "Orange", "Kiwi", "Jackfruit", "Mulberry" ]fruits.sort()print("Sorted fruits:", fruits)
In the above code widget, we are using sort(), which will sort the list words in place, modifying the original list.
Mixed case words
If the list of words contains mixed case, then we will use the key parameter of the sort() or sorted() function:
fruits = [ "banana", "Apple", "orange", "Kiwi", "jackfruit", "Mulberry" ]sorted_fruits = sorted(fruits, key=str.lower)print("Sorted fruits:", sorted_fruits)
In the above code, we have mixed case words and want case-insensitive sorting. We can use the key parameter of the sorted() function or the sort() method with str.lower as the key function. This ensures that the sorting is done irrespective of the case. This will sort the words, ignoring the case.
We also have another method to sort mixed case words using lambda function, let's take a look at the code below:
fruits = [ "banana", "Apple", "orange", "Kiwi", "jackfruit", "Mulberry" ]fruits.sort(key=lambda x: x.lower())print("Sorted fruits:", fruits)
The code above starts with a list of mixed-case words stored in the words variable. We use the sort() method on the words list with a key argument specified as a Lambda function lambda x: x.lower(). The Lambda function, lambda x: x.lower(), converts each word to lowercase before sorting. This ensures that the sorting is done in a case-insensitive manner. Finally, the sort() method sorts the words list in place, modifying the original list.
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