Usage

• SQL-like: orderby('foo ASC, bar DESC')

• chained: asc('foo').desc('bar') usage

• multiple fields at once: asc('foo', 'bar')

Examples

orderby() string syntax:

>>> from orderby import orderby
>>> import json
>>> files = [
...   {'size': 1234, 'path': 'foo/bar.txt'},
...   {'size': 0, 'path': '/dev/null'},
...   {'size': 1234, 'path': 'foo/abc.bin'},
... ]
>>> print(json.dumps(sorted(files, key=orderby('size DESC, path')), indent=2))
[
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/abc.bin"
  },
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/bar.txt"
  },
  {
    "size": 0,
    "path": "/dev/null"
  }
]

Chained asc() and desc() usage:

>>> from orderby import asc, desc
>>> print(json.dumps(sorted(files, key=desc('size').asc('path')), indent=2))
[
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/abc.bin"
  },
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/bar.txt"
  },
  {
    "size": 0,
    "path": "/dev/null"
  }
]

In-place sorting of a list:

>>> files.sort(key=desc('path'))
>>> print(json.dumps(files, indent=2))
[
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/bar.txt"
  },
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/abc.bin"
  },
  {
    "size": 0,
    "path": "/dev/null"
  }
]
>>> files.sort(key=desc('size').asc('path'))
>>> print(json.dumps(files, indent=2))
[
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/abc.bin"
  },
  {
    "size": 1234,
    "path": "foo/bar.txt"
  },
  {
    "size": 0,
    "path": "/dev/null"
  }
]

Internals

To be explained here later…