When and Why to Use Sorted() Function

The sorted() function is a built-in function in Python that can be used to sort any iterable object. It’s widely used for sorting list of strings, numbers etc., both in ascending and descending order. …

Updated November 24, 2023

Below are few examples:

# Sorting Lists
numbers = [213, 45, 678]
sorted_numbers = sorted(numbers) # Sorting numbers in ascending order
print(sorted_numbers) #[45, 213, 678]

names = ['John', 'Alice', 'Bob']
sorted_names = sorted(names) # Sorting names in alphabetical order
print(sorted_names) #['Alice', 'Bob', 'John']

The above examples sort lists of numbers and strings. You can also pass a key argument to the sorted function which specifies how the elements should be compared. For example, if you want to sort the names list in descending order, you could use:

sorted_names = sorted(names, reverse=True)  # Sorting names in descending order
print(sorted_names)  #['John', 'Bob', 'Alice']

The sorted() function returns a new list of elements from the original iterable object but does not modify the original list.

To sort a list alphabetically you can use:

unordered_list = ['Apple', 'Cherry', 'Banana', 'Mango']
sorted_list = sorted(unordered_list)
print(sorted_list)  # ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Cherry', 'Mango']

This will sort the list alphabetically in ascending order. If you want to sort it descendingly, use reverse=True as:

unordered_list = ['Apple', 'Cherry', 'Banana', 'Mango']
sorted_list = sorted(unordered_list, reverse=True)  # Sorting list in descending order
print(sorted_list)  #['Mango', 'Banana', 'Cherry', 'Apple']

This is useful when you need to keep the original list unchanged and a new sorted list for further use.