2008/9/24 Joe Python <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi Pythonistas, > > I have a large dictionary of dictionary (50,000+ keys) which has a structure > as follows: [snip] > I want to sort the dictionary by 'income' > Is there an efficient way to do the same.
Note that you cannot sort a dictionary. The best you can do is build a list containing the dictionary keys in the appropriate order and use the dictionary in combination with that list. You could try this: 1. Build a dictionary mapping income to list of families. 2. Sort keys to this dictionary. 3. Iterate through this sorted list, emitting family names. e.g. from collections import defaultdict familiesByIncome = defaultdict(list) for family in DoD: familiesByIncome[DoD[family]['income']].append(family) incomes = familiesByIncome.keys() incomes.sort() # sorts from lowest to highest familiesSorted = [] for inc in incomes: familiesSorted.extend(familiesByIncome[inc]) ## HTH! -- John. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
