How to sort files by an specific order

Question

I'm trying to sort the files I'm saving according to their creation / last modification time. It turns out that the files are generated so quickly that their creation date ends up being the same.

For example, let's say I have an array of objects:

data = [
      { "Name": "Kevin Durant", "Team": "Brooklyn Nets" },
      { "Name": "LeBron James", "Team": "Los Angeles Lakers" },
      { "Name": "Trae Young", "Team": "Atlanta Hawks" },
];

I create a directory:

download_folder = os.path.expanduser("~")+"/Downloads/"
dir_name = "NBA"
makedir_path = os.path.join(download_folder, dir_name)
if not os.path.exists(makedir_path):
    os.makedirs(makedir_path)

I use a for to save each object in a different file (the name of each file will be the name of the player's team):

for document in data:
  file_name = document["Team"] + ".txt"
  path = os.path.join(makedir_path, file_name)
  open(path, "x")    
  with open(os.path.join(makedir_path, file_name),'w') as new_f:
      json.dump(found_database, new_f, indent=4, sort_keys=True)

After creating the files, I try to order them according to the creation / modification date (which would be the same order as the elements of the array of object):

os.chdir(makedir_path)
files = filter(os.path.isfile, os.listdir(makedir_path))
files = [os.path.join(makedir_path, f) for f in files]
files.sort(key=lambda x: os.path.getmtime(x))
# Another way I tried to order but it didn't work
# files.sort(key=os.path.getctime)

But, instead, the files are ordered by the file name (team name):

I want it to be ordered by the same array order. So I would have this:

Brooklyn Nets.txt
Los Angeles Lakers.txt
Atlanta Hawks.txt

Is that even possible, or the OS itself sorts it by its name by default? Thank you!

Answer 1

Well, I don't think there is anything you can easily do with your OS for that.

However, I can propose based on your array:

import glob
import os

data = [
          { "Name": "Kevin Durant", "Team": "Brooklyn Nets" },
          { "Name": "LeBron James", "Team": "Los Angeles Lakers" },
          { "Name": "Trae Young", "Team": "Atlanta Hawks" },
       ]

for filename in glob.glob("*txt"):
    name = filename.split(".")[0]
    for i, dat in enumerate(data):
        if dat['Team'] == name:
            os.rename(filename,str(i)+"_"+filename.replace(" ","_"))
            print (str(i)+"_"+filename.replace(" ","_"))

Then you'll have a numerical ID that corresponds to your list for each file.