sort(List) -- sort a list

Synopsis

• Function: sort

• Usage:

  sort v

• Inputs:
  • v, a list
• Optional inputs:
  • DegreeOrder => ..., default value null, specify Ascending, Descending, or null
  • MonomialOrder => ..., default value Ascending, specify Ascending or Descending monomial order
• Outputs:
  • a list, of the same length as v sorted in ascending order

Description

The sort function uses <= to compare elements of the list, which in turn calls upon the comparison operator ?, so, to determine how the elements are sorted, refer to its documentation. Methods for new user defined types of objects can be installed for it, too, to obtain the desired sorting behavior.

i1 : sort {c,e,a,f,b,f}

o1 = {a, b, c, e, f, f}

o1 : List

i2 : sort {4,2,6,3,8,2}

o2 = {2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8}

o2 : List

Comparison of strings is implemented so that symbols come before alphanumeric characters, upper and lower case characters are sorted together, and strings of digits are sorted by size of the implied number.

i3 : sort {"a11","a1","a2","A11","A1","A2","B2"}

o3 = {A1, a1, A2, a2, A11, a11, B2}

o3 : List

Visible lists (lists, sequences, and arrays) are compared lexicographically.

i4 : sort {(1,1),(2,1),(3,1),(1,2),(3,2)}

o4 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (2, 1), (3, 1), (3, 2)}

o4 : List

If the elements of the list are polynomials, then the monomial order is used to sort the elements according to their lead terms.

i5 : R = ZZ[a..d,MonomialOrder=>Lex];

i6 : sort{a*d, b^100, c^3*d}

       3    100
o6 = {c d, b   , a*d}

o6 : List

The optional arguments are not used in this version of sort.

Caveat

See also

• rsort -- sort a list or matrix in reverse order
• <= -- less than or equal
• ? -- comparison operator