sort_values() by multiple columns in Pandas - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Sorting Data with pandas using sort_values() by multiple columns

📖 Scenario: You work in a small bookstore. You have a list of books with their title, author, and year published. You want to organize this list so that books are sorted first by author name alphabetically, and then by year published from oldest to newest.

🎯 Goal: Build a pandas DataFrame with book data and sort it by author and year using sort_values() with multiple columns.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a pandas DataFrame called books with columns title, author, and year using the exact data provided.

Create a list called sort_columns with the column names 'author' and 'year' in that order.

Use sort_values() on the books DataFrame with the by parameter set to sort_columns.

Print the sorted DataFrame.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Sorting data by multiple columns is common when organizing records like books, sales, or customer data to find patterns or prepare reports.

💼 Career

Data analysts and scientists often sort data by multiple criteria to clean, explore, and present data clearly.

1

Create the books DataFrame

Import pandas as pd and create a DataFrame called books with these exact entries: title as ['The Hobbit', '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'Animal Farm'], author as ['Tolkien', 'Orwell', 'Huxley', 'Salinger', 'Orwell'], and year as [1937, 1949, 1932, 1951, 1945].

Pandas

# Import pandas and create the DataFrame 'books' with the given data
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use pd.DataFrame() with a dictionary where keys are column names and values are lists of data.

2

Create the list of columns to sort by

Create a list called sort_columns with the exact values 'author' and 'year' in that order.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

books = pd.DataFrame({
    'title': ['The Hobbit', '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'Animal Farm'],
    'author': ['Tolkien', 'Orwell', 'Huxley', 'Salinger', 'Orwell'],
    'year': [1937, 1949, 1932, 1951, 1945]
})

# Create the list 'sort_columns' with 'author' and 'year'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create a list with the two column names as strings.

3

Sort the DataFrame by multiple columns

Use the sort_values() method on the books DataFrame with the by parameter set to the list sort_columns. Assign the sorted DataFrame back to books.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

books = pd.DataFrame({
    'title': ['The Hobbit', '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'Animal Farm'],
    'author': ['Tolkien', 'Orwell', 'Huxley', 'Salinger', 'Orwell'],
    'year': [1937, 1949, 1932, 1951, 1945]
})

sort_columns = ['author', 'year']

# Sort the 'books' DataFrame by 'author' and 'year' using sort_values()
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use books.sort_values(by=sort_columns) and assign it back to books.

4

Print the sorted DataFrame

Write a print statement to display the sorted books DataFrame.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

books = pd.DataFrame({
    'title': ['The Hobbit', '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'Animal Farm'],
    'author': ['Tolkien', 'Orwell', 'Huxley', 'Salinger', 'Orwell'],
    'year': [1937, 1949, 1932, 1951, 1945]
})

sort_columns = ['author', 'year']

books = books.sort_values(by=sort_columns)

# Print the sorted DataFrame
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(books) to show the sorted DataFrame.