Sorting a 3 parallel list that includes strings and numeric value in Python

Question

how to sort using 3 parallel array lists:

num1 = ['a','b','c,']
num2 = ['apple','pear','grapes']
num3 = [2.5,4.0,.68]

I used 2 for statements followed by a if statement. Sorting by elements the output should be:

a apple 2.5
b pear 4.0
c grapes .68

unfortunately, I am having issues with sorting the 3rd num3 values using the element swapping sort. any ideas

Answer 1

Since you say the lists are parallel, let's group them into tuples, and then sort the list of tuples.

num1 = ['a','b','c']
num2 = ['apple','pear','grapes']
num3 = [2.5,4.0,.68]

lst = zip(num1, num2, num3)
lst.sort()

for x1, x2, x3 in lst:
    print x1, x2, x3,

print

The result is:

a apple 2.5 b pear 4.0 c grapes 0.68

Answer 2

From your desired inputs and output it doesn't seem you want any sorting -- just:

num1 = ['a','b','c']
num2 = ['apple','pear','grapes']
num3 = [2.5,4.0,.68]
for item in [x for t in zip(num1, num2, num3) for x in t]:
  print item,
print

This does give the output you mention -- is this what you want?