List Sorting
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This lesson teaches how to sort list elements in ascending or descending order in Python.
What is List Sorting?
List sorting means arranging the elements of a list in a specific order.
👉 The order can be:
Ascending (small → big, A → Z)
Descending (big → small, Z → A)
Sorting helps in:
Organizing data
Searching easily
Making reports
Ranking items
In Python, sorting is mainly done using:
Daily Life Example
Think about:
Arranging books by name
Ranking students by marks
Sorting products by price
Method 1: sort() (Changes Original List)
It is a list method
Sorts the list permanently
Default sorting is ascending
marks = [85, 72, 90, 60, 78]
marks.sort()
print(marks)
Descending Order
marks.sort(reverse=True)
print(marks)Method 2: sorted() (Creates New List)
It is a function
Original list remains unchanged
Returns a new sorted list
numbers = [5, 2, 9, 1]
new_list = sorted(numbers)
print(new_list)
print(numbers)Sorting Strings
Alphabetical sorting (A–Z)
names = ["Rahul", "Amit", "Zoya", "Neha"]
names.sort()
print(names)Sorting Using Key
Used when sorting based on length or custom rule.
words = ["apple", "kiwi", "banana"]
words.sort(key=len)
print(words)Student Ranking
students_marks = [55, 89, 72, 91, 60]
students_marks.sort(reverse=True)
print("Top Scores:", students_marks)