Finding the index of the value which is the min or max in Python

Question

I\'ve got a structure of the form:

>>> items
[([[0, 1], [2, 20]], \'zz\', \'\'), ([[1, 3], [5, 29], [50, 500]], \'a\', \'b\')]

The

Answer 1

so this is a real quick and easy way to get that efficient version you are looking for:

a = []
count = 0
for i in items:
    for x in i[0]:
        #place a list with the index next to it in list a for sorting
        a.append((x,count))
#continually grabs the smallest list and returns the index it was in
sort = [a.pop(a.index(min(a)))[1] for i in range(len(a))]

Here is it with your items to show that it works:

>>> items = [([[0, 1], [2, 20]], 'zz', ''), ([[1, 3], [5, 29], [50, 500]], 'a', 'b')]
>>> a = []
>>> count = 0
>>> for i in items:
...     for x in i[0]:
...             a.append((x,count))
...     count += 1
... 
>>> sort = [a.pop(a.index(min(a)))[1] for i in range(len(a))]
>>> sort
[0, 1, 0, 1, 1]