CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonsorting
Laxmikant
Laxmikant

Reputation: 2216

Why should not use list.sort in python

While I was going through Google Python Class Day 1 Part 2 at 14:20 - 14:30 Guy says "do not use list.sort". Also he mentioned that "Dinosaurs use that!" (i.e. it's an old way of doing sorting). But he did not mention the reason.

Can anyone tell me why we should not use list.sort?

Upvotes: 8

Views: 3170

Answers (3)

Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor

Reputation: 8813

From https://wiki.python.org/moin/HowTo/Sorting:

You can also use the list.sort() method of a list. It modifies the list in-place (and returns None to avoid confusion). Usually it's less convenient than sorted() - but if you don't need the original list, it's slightly more efficient.

Many people prefer not changing the state of variables (look up the advantages of immutable values/data structures), and so would prefer not to modify the original list like list.sort does.

Upvotes: 6

svfat
svfat

Reputation: 3363

I think it is very opinion based, sometimes you need to change an original list and you use .sort(), sometimes you don't need to change it, and you use sorted()

In general, it isn't bad to use .sort()

Upvotes: 7

Avinash Raj
Avinash Raj

Reputation: 174696

Because list.sort() will do an in-place sorting. So this changes the original list. But sorted(list) would create a new list instead of modifying the original.

Example:

>>> s = [1,2,37,4]
>>> s.sort()
>>> s
[1, 2, 4, 37]
>>> s = [1,2,37,4,45]
>>> sorted(s)
[1, 2, 4, 37, 45]
>>> s
[1, 2, 37, 4, 45]

Upvotes: 14

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