Python print returns None

Question

I was working out the solution to a problem when I came across the following...

I had started by creating a variable, test , and initializing it to a list.

test = [3, 2, 1]

After playing around with .sort() and calling it upon my list, test , I tried to use print as follows:

print test.sort(reverse = True)

The output was None and I was just curious as to why exactly this is.

Answer 1

sort() modifies the list in-place, and returns None . This is unlike the sorted() function, which returns a reference to the sorted list.

It could return a reference as well (like JavaScript's sort() ), but it doesn't. It's a design decision .

Answer 2

Sort works in place. It does not return new list.