Python - List sort() Method

The Python list sort() method is used to sort elements of the list in ascending or descending order. This method has an optional argument which can be used to pass a function to specify sorting criteria.

Syntax

list.sort(reverse = True | False, key = function)

Parameters

Return Value

None.

Example: Reverse order Sorting

In the example below, sort() method is used to sort all elements of the list called MyList in descending order.

MyList = [1, 10, 5, 7, 3, 6, 5]
MyList.sort(reverse = True)  
print(MyList)

The output of the above code will be:

[10, 7, 6, 5, 5, 3, 1]

Example: Reverse order Sorting with function criteria

In the example below, a function called name_length() is used with list sort() method which specifies length of the element as sorting criteria.

def name_length(x):
  return len(x)

MyList = ['Marry', 'Sam', 'John', 'Jo']
MyList.sort(reverse = True, key = name_length)  
print(MyList)

The output of the above code will be:

['Marry', 'John', 'Sam', 'Jo']