Sorting Q.

[jarrod0987]

Suppose I have a list of lists:

listA = [['A', 5], ['B', 18], ['C', 18], ['D', 34] 

I know how to use itemgetter to sort by the second element, the number, in reverse order. D 34, C 18, B 18, A 5 etc...

What if I want to make sure that in cases where 2 entries have the same number they are sorted alphabetically?

I want the numbers descending but the letters ascending. D 34, B 18, C 18, A 5 etc...

How do I do that please?

[Larz60+]

>>> import operator
>>> s = sorted(listA, key = operator.itemgetter(1, 0))
>>> s
[['A', 5], ['B', 18], ['C', 18], ['D', 34]]
>>>

Scramble it up a bit to make sure it's working:

>>> listA = [['C', 18], ['D', 34], ['B', 18], ['A', 5]]
>>> s = sorted(listA, key = operator.itemgetter(1, 0))
>>> s
[['A', 5], ['B', 18], ['C', 18], ['D', 34]]
>>>

[jarrod0987]

>>> import operator
>>> s = sorted(listA, key = operator.itemgetter(1, 0))
>>> s
[['A', 5], ['B', 18], ['C', 18], ['D', 34]]
>>>

Scramble it up a bit to make sure it's working:

>>> listA = [['C', 18], ['D', 34], ['B', 18], ['A', 5]]
>>> s = sorted(listA, key = operator.itemgetter(1, 0))
>>> s
[['A', 5], ['B', 18], ['C', 18], ['D', 34]]
>>>

OK but what if I want the numbers reversed but the letters still in normal A-Z order in case of a tie?

[Larz60+]

use reverse=True
s = sorted(listA, key = operator.itemgetter(1, 0), reverse=True)

[jarrod0987]

use reverse=True
s = sorted(listA, key = operator.itemgetter(1, 0), reverse=True)

So the reverse is only applied to the primary sort?
EDIT:
Does not seem to be working.

rankByFreq = sorted(rankByFreq,key=itemgetter(1, 0), reverse = True)
    print (rankByFreq)

This is what I get back:

[['T', 39], ['P', 29], ['I', 26], ['H', 26], ['E', 26], ['D', 24], ['W', 23], ['X', 22], ['S', 20], ['L', 20], ['A', 18], ['G', 15], ['Y', 14], ['C', 14], ['R', 13], ['U', 11], ['M', 9], ['N', 6], ['J', 6], ['B', 6], ['V', 5], ['Q', 5], ['Z', 4], ['K', 3], ['O', 2], ['F', 1]]

I want it to go E H I not I H E etc...

[Larz60+]

E H I is forward sort, not reversed!

[jarrod0987]

E H I is forward sort, not reversed!

LOL Yes I know. What I want to do is reverse sort by number but in case of tie. It's OK now. I figured out I can sort it regular by the letter then sort it again reversed by the number.

Thanks for your help. Sorry if I stressed you out :D I can't always phrase my questions clearly.