Finding max value in the second column of a nested list?

python list nested element max
davelupt picture davelupt · Jan 26, 2011 · Viewed 35.3k times · Source

I have a list like this:

alkaline_earth_values = [['beryllium',  4], 
                         ['magnesium', 12],
                         ['calcium',   20],
                         ['strontium', 38], 
                         ['barium',    56], 
                         ['radium',    88]]

If I simply use the max(list) method, it will return the answer 'strontium', which would be correct if I was trying to find the max name, however I'm trying to return the element whose integer is highest.

Answer

kynnysmatto picture kynnysmatto · Jan 26, 2011 
max(alkaline_earth_values, key=lambda x: x[1])

The reason this works is because the key argument of the max function specifies a function that is called when max wants to know the value by which the maximum element will be searched. max will call that function for each element in the sequence. And lambda x: x[1] creates a small function which takes in a list and returns the first (counting starts from zero) element. So

k = lambda x: x[1]

is the same as saying

def k(l):
  return l[1]

but shorter and nice to use in situations like this.

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