Sorting list of names using a lambda (PyBite #5)

[bowlofred]

A lambda is a just a function without a name (hence "anonymous"). You can certainly use a named function if it helps you understand it better.

def second_element(s):
    """Return the second element of the string after split()ing"""
    """Will raise IndexError if there are not two elements"""
    return s.split()[1]
    

def sort_by_surname_desc(names):
   return sorted(names, key=second_element, reverse=True)

The benefit of lambda is that if the function is super short, you don't have to define it elsewhere. You can just define it where it's used.