Python：按字母顺序对列表列表进行排序/分组

Question

I feel like this has already been asked, but the answers for the questions have not worked for my code.

I am trying to sort a list of lists alphabetically based on first list[2] then within matching entries sorted by list[3] and then list[4] and so on. The real data is bigger and has more entries in each list but an example:

list = [ 
['X_campestris_vesicatoria', 'Bacteria', 'Proteobacteria',
   'Gammaproteobacteria', 'Xanthomonadales', 'Xanthomonadaceae', 'Xanthomonas'],
['Pantoea', 'Bacteria', 'Proteobacteria', 'Gammaproteobacteria',
   'Enterobacteriales', 'Enterobacteriaceae', 'Pantoea'],
['Acidobacterium', 'Bacteria', 'Acidobacteria', 'Acidobacteriales',
   'Acidobacteriaceae', 'Granulicella'],
['S_boydii', 'Bacteria', 'Proteobacteria', 'Gammaproteobacteria',
   'Enterobacteriales', 'Enterobacteriaceae', 'Shigella']]

I have tried some of the things that similar questions have as answers:

taxlist.sort(key = lambda row: (row[2],row[3],row[4],row[5]))
print taxlist

but no sorting is happening.

same with when I try:

sorted(taxlist, key=lambda x: (x[2],x[3],x[4],x[5]))
print taxlist

And once the list is sorted can I still use this or is the list no longer iterable?

import csv
writer = csv.writer(sys.stdout, delimiter="\t")
writer.writerows(taxlist)

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

sorted gives you a new list, while L.sort sorts L in place. In both cases, the original list is still accessible and can be iterated over.

In the even that you use sorted , the old list is still accessible and can be iterated over. The list that is returned is also accessible and can be iterated over.

Hope that helps