Lambda with sorted() in Python - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Sorting a List of Dictionaries Using Lambda with sorted()

📖 Scenario: You work in a small bookstore. You have a list of books, each with a title and a price. You want to organize the books by their price from lowest to highest so customers can easily see the cheapest books first.

🎯 Goal: Build a Python program that sorts a list of dictionaries representing books by their price using sorted() with a lambda function.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list called books with dictionaries containing 'title' and 'price' keys

Create a variable called sorted_books that sorts books by the 'price' key using sorted() and a lambda

Print the sorted_books list

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Sorting lists of dictionaries is common when working with data like products, books, or records where you want to order items by a specific detail.

💼 Career

Many jobs require sorting data efficiently. Using lambda with sorted() is a quick way to organize data without writing complex code.

1

Create the list of books

Create a list called books with these exact dictionaries: {'title': 'Book A', 'price': 12.99}, {'title': 'Book B', 'price': 8.99}, and {'title': 'Book C', 'price': 15.50}.

Python

# Create the list called books with the given dictionaries
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets [] to create a list and curly braces {} for each dictionary.

2

Prepare to sort the books

Create a variable called sorted_books and set it to None for now. This will hold the sorted list later.

Python

books = [
    {'title': 'Book A', 'price': 12.99},
    {'title': 'Book B', 'price': 8.99},
    {'title': 'Book C', 'price': 15.50}
]

# Create a variable sorted_books and set it to None
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just write sorted_books = None for now.

3

Sort the books by price using lambda with sorted()

Use sorted() with a lambda function to sort the books list by the 'price' key. Assign the result to sorted_books. Use lambda book: book['price'] as the key function.

Python

books = [
    {'title': 'Book A', 'price': 12.99},
    {'title': 'Book B', 'price': 8.99},
    {'title': 'Book C', 'price': 15.50}
]

# Sort books by price using sorted() and lambda, assign to sorted_books
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use sorted(books, key=lambda book: book['price']) to sort by price.

4

Print the sorted list of books

Print the sorted_books list to show the books sorted by price.

Python

books = [
    {'title': 'Book A', 'price': 12.99},
    {'title': 'Book B', 'price': 8.99},
    {'title': 'Book C', 'price': 15.50}
]

sorted_books = sorted(books, key=lambda book: book['price'])

# Print the sorted_books list
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(sorted_books) to show the sorted list.