modifying argument value within function

Question

I am trying to figure out a way to modify the order of a list of tuples within a function without returning the list.

For example:

L = [(2,4),(8,5),(1,3),(9,4)]
def sort_ratios(L):
    L = sorted(L, key=lambda x: float(x[0])/float(x[1]))
    return L

Thus, calling sort_ratios() outputs:

>>>sort_ratios(L)
[(1,3),(2,4),(8,5),(9,4)]

But L would still be [(2,4),(8,5),(1,3),(9,4)] Instead, I would like to simply modify the value of L without returning anything so that sort_ratios() operates as follows:

>>>sort_ratios(L)
>>>L
[(1,3),(2,4),(8,5),(9,4)]

It seems trivial, but I just can't seem to get the function to operate this way.

Karin · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-13 04:25:28Z

4

Try L.sort(key=lambda x: float(x[0])/float(x[1])) for an in-place sort.

answered Aug 13, 2016 at 4:25

Karin

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