How to sort with lambda in Python

python sorting functional-programming anonymous-function
Niklas R. picture Niklas R. · Sep 22, 2010 · Viewed 242.4k times · Source

In Python, I am trying to sort by date with lambda. I can't understand my error message. The message is:

<lambda>() takes exactly 1 argument (2 given)

The line I have is

a = sorted(a, lambda x: x.modified, reverse=True)

Answer

kennytm picture kennytm · Sep 22, 2010

Use

a = sorted(a, key=lambda x: x.modified, reverse=True)
#             ^^^^

On Python 2.x, the sorted function takes its arguments in this order:

sorted(iterable, cmp=None, key=None, reverse=False)

so without the key=, the function you pass in will be considered a cmp function which takes 2 arguments.

Related questions

How do I sort a dictionary by value?

I have a dictionary of values read from two fields in a database: a string field and a numeric field. The string field is unique, so that is the key of the dictionary. I can sort on the keys, but …

Read More
How can I sort a dictionary by key?

What would be a nice way to go from {2:3, 1:89, 4:5, 3:0} to {1:89, 2:3, 3:0, 4:5}? I checked some posts but they all use the "sorted" operator that returns tuples.

Read More
How do I sort a list of dictionaries by a value of the dictionary?

I have a list of dictionaries and want each item to be sorted by a specific value. Take into consideration the list: [{'name':'Homer', 'age':39}, {'name':'Bart', 'age':10}] When sorted by name, it should become: [{'name':'Bart', 'age':10}, {'name':'Homer', …

Read More