Python List - sort() Method

The Python 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']