how to sort an array in python without sort function

Order a list of numbers without built-in sort, min, max function

stackoverflow.com › questions › 11964450 › order-a-list-of-numbers-without-built-in-sort-min-max-function

I guess you are trying to do something like this:

data_list = [-5, -23, 5, 0, 23, -6, 23, 67]
new_list = []

while data_list:
    minimum = data_list[0]  # arbitrary number in list 
    for x in data_list: 
        if x < minimum:
            minimum = x
    new_list.append(minimum)
    data_list.remove(minimum)    

print (new_list)

#Added parenthesis

Answer from John La Rooy on Stack Overflow

GeeksforGeeks

geeksforgeeks.org › python › sort-a-list-in-python-without-sort-function

Sort a list in Python without sort Function - GeeksforGeeks

July 4, 2025 - Bubble Sort is a simple comparison-based sorting algorithm. It works by repeatedly swapping adjacent elements if they are in the wrong order. In this case, it checks if the left element is smaller than the right and swaps them to sort in descending ...

Stack Overflow

stackoverflow.com › questions › 11964450 › order-a-list-of-numbers-without-built-in-sort-min-max-function

python - Order a list of numbers without built-in sort, min, max function - Stack Overflow

Top answer

1 of 16

53

I guess you are trying to do something like this:

data_list = [-5, -23, 5, 0, 23, -6, 23, 67]
new_list = []

while data_list:
    minimum = data_list[0]  # arbitrary number in list 
    for x in data_list: 
        if x < minimum:
            minimum = x
    new_list.append(minimum)
    data_list.remove(minimum)    

print (new_list)

#Added parenthesis

2 of 16

26

l = [64, 25, 12, 22, 11, 1,2,44,3,122, 23, 34]

for i in range(len(l)):
    for j in range(i + 1, len(l)):

        if l[i] > l[j]:
           l[i], l[j] = l[j], l[i]

print l

Output:

[1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 22, 23, 25, 34, 44, 64, 122]

Discussions

sorting a list WITHOUT sort

I think I can solve it with if, elif, else but I don't know where to start even. Write a function to sort a list of two items. You can sort any list by sorting two items at a time over and over again, it's called a "bubble sort." More on reddit.com

r/learnpython

40

1

April 8, 2020

Sorting arrays in python

In python we much prefer to use nested lists instead of parallel lists. We can convert your data to a nested list using zip(): nested_data = list(zip(myList, mylables)) Now sorting is the same as before: sorted_data = sorted(nested_data, reverse=True) Depending on what you want to do with the data you may be done. For example if you want to print it out: for dat, label in sorted_data: print(label, dat) I need to keep it so that a sortedlabellist is its own individual array (for future things) Hmm, I don't believe you, but if that's actually true you can use zip() again to convert it back: myList, mylables = zip(*sorted_data) More on reddit.com

r/learnpython

4

1

April 29, 2021

Array should have a sort method - Ideas - Discussions on Python.org

Hello, Arrays are a space efficient way of storing numeric values in Python. However, there doesn’t seem to be any space efficient way to order them. It’s possible to use the built-in sorted function, but it will return a list and that will cancel all space efficiency gains of arrays. More on discuss.python.org

discuss.python.org

3

February 18, 2025

How to sort an array without using another array?

The target solution is not sorted (it starts with 3 2 3 and ends with 6 8 6). So any standard sort algorithm is not going to produce that output. What is being asked is just a partition of the values. x is 5, so array[5] is 4 (indexes start at 0 in Python). All it is asking is that you swap values less than 4 in array positions 0..4 with values greater than 4 in array positions 6..10. There are two dumb things about this question. (a) It happens that the first part of a[] has three values that need moving (5,6,8) and the second part also has three that need moving (4,4,3). But that need not be true. You would need to count the lower and higher values and shift a[5] to leave the correct amount of room for them. Extreme example: if the input was 1 2 3 1 2 4 1 2 3 1 2 then the 4 would have to end up in a[10]. (b) This has multiple possible solutions (I think 36). For example, a valid solution could start with 2 3 3 or 3 2 3 or 3 3 2. It could end with 8 6 6 5 or 6 8 5 6. So saying you have to product their value exactly in this case means you have to guess exactly how their algorithm is implemented. The reason there are 36 solutions: There are 6 permutations of any three objects a b c, but it as there are two 3s and we cannot tell the difference, we halve the count to 3. Likewise, there are 24 permutations of four objects, but there are two 6s. Whoever set this question does not understand what they are asking for. More on reddit.com

r/CodingHelp

10

0

September 2, 2023

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