How to sort an already sorted array by a second property?

Question:

Lets say I have a list of tuples, and by calling sort where key = first element, our list comes back as:

[(1, 'e'), (2, 'd'), (3, 'c'), (3, 'a'), (3, 'b'), (4, 'f')]

Now, how do I apply a sort that applies only to those values where the first values match, (in this case, the three values that have first element as 3), so that the final list is:

[(1, 'e'), (2, 'd'), (3, 'a'), (3, 'b'), (3, 'c'), (4, 'f')]

I have applied a sort to the first element, but when I apply a sort to the second element, the first sort becomes undone. I would like to keep the original sort, and change ONLY those elements with duplicate first elements.

Thank you!

Asked By: Ebenezer

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Answers:

The default .sort() method in Python already does this. For example, the code:

L = [(1, 'e'), (2, 'd'), (3, 'c'), (3, 'a'), (3, 'b'), (4, 'f')]
L.sort()

print(L)

Returns [(1, 'e'), (2, 'd'), (3, 'a'), (3, 'b'), (3, 'c'), (4, 'f')] which is what you want

Answered By: Timmy Diehl