python list元素类型,Python：list包含不同元素类型时的list.sort（）查询

Greetings Pythonic world. Day 4 of learning Python 3.3 and I've come across a strange property of list.sort.

I created a list of five elements: four strings, with a number in the middle. Trying to get list.sort to work gave the expected error because of mixing types:

>>> list = ['b', 'a', 3, 'd', 'c']

>>> list.sort()

Traceback (innermost last):

File "", line 1, in

TypeError: unorderable types: int() < str()

>>> list

['b', 'a', 3, 'd', 'c']

The list is unchanged.

But then I moved the number to the end, used list.sort again, and got this:

>>> list = ['b', 'a', 'd', 'c', 3]

>>> list.sort()

Traceback (innermost last):

File "", line 1, in

TypeError: unorderable types: int() < str()

>>> list

['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 3]

OK, an error. But the list has sorted itself, kicking the number to the end. I couldn't find any explanation for this on this site or in Langtangen. Is there some underlying reason for this behaviour? Would it be useful in some situation?

解决方案

From the Python 3 docs:

This method sorts the list in place, using only < comparisons between

items. Exceptions are not suppressed - if any comparison operations

fail, the entire sort operation will fail (and the list will likely be

left in a partially modified state).

The docs don't guarantee any behaviour in particular, but the elements will more than likely be left part-way sorted. Whetever order they were in when the exception occurred, and this order can vary between implementations, or possibly (but unlikely) two subsequent runs of the program.

If you want to try to sort the items without worrying about an unfortunate re-ordering, you can use the sorted builtin function, which will return a new list rather than modify the original.

>>> seq = ['b', 'a', 3, 'd', 'c']

>>> try:

... seq = sorted(seq) # if sorted fails, result won't be assigned

... except Exception: # you may only want TypeError

... pass

...

>>> seq

['b', 'a', 3, 'd', 'c'] # list unmodified

EDIT:

to address everyone saying something like

once it sees two different types it raises an exception

I know you are probably aware that this kind of statement is an oversimplification, but I think without being clear, it's going to cause confusion.

The following example consists of two classes A and B which support comparison with each other through their respective __lt__ methods. It shows a list mixed of these two types sorted with list.sort() and then printed in sorted order with no exceptions raised:

class A:

def __init__(self, value):

self.a = value

def __lt__(self, other):

if isinstance(other, B):

return self.a < other.b

else:

return self.a < other.a

def __repr__(self):

return repr(self.a)

class B:

def __init__(self, value):

self.b = value

def __lt__(self, other):

if isinstance(other, A):

return self.b < other.a

else:

return self.b < other.b

def __repr__(self):

return repr(self.b)

seq = [A(10), B(2), A(8), B(16), B(9)]

seq.sort()

print(seq)

The output of this is:

[2, 8, 9, 10, 16]

it's not vital that you understand every detail of this. It's just to illustrate that a list of mixed types can work with list.sort() if all the pieces are there