How to make heapq evaluate the heap off of a specific attribute?

Question

I wish to hold a heap of objects, not just numbers. They will have an integer attribute in them that the heap can sort by. The easiest way to use heaps in python is heapq,

Answer 1

I feel the simplest way is to override the existing cmp_lt function of the heapq module. A short example:

import heapq

# your custom function. Here, comparing tuples a and b based on their 2nd element
def new_cmp_lt(self,a,b):
    return a[1]