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Asked: 2024-09-22T17:58:19+05:30 In:

I’m encountering an issue while trying to sort a list of dictionaries in Python. The error message indicates that a ‘dict’ object does not have a specific attribute. What is the proper way to sort this list, and how can I fix this error?

Hey everyone! I’m working on a Python project where I need to sort a list of dictionaries based on a specific key within those dictionaries. However, I’m running into some issues.

Here’s the error I keep seeing: “AttributeError: ‘dict’ object has no attribute ‘X'” (where ‘X’ is the key I’m trying to sort by).

The list of dictionaries looks something like this:

“`python
data = [
{‘name’: ‘Alice’, ‘age’: 28},
{‘name’: ‘Bob’, ‘age’: 24},
{‘name’: ‘Charlie’, ‘age’: 30}
]
“`

I want to sort this list by the ‘age’ key, but I can’t seem to get it to work.

What is the proper way to sort this list of dictionaries in Python? And how can I fix the attribute error I’m encountering? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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    2 Answers






    1. Sorting List of Dictionaries in Python

      Sorting a List of Dictionaries in Python

      Hi there! It looks like you’re trying to sort a list of dictionaries by a specific key, which in your case is ‘age’. The error you mentioned, AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'X', usually occurs when you’re trying to access a key as an attribute which is not the right approach with dictionaries.

      In Python, you can sort a list of dictionaries using the sorted() function or the sort() method by specifying a key function. Since dictionaries are accessed by keys, let’s use the lambda function to sort by the desired ‘age’ key.

      Here’s a sample code on how to do that:

      
data = [
    {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 28},
    {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 24},
    {'name': 'Charlie', 'age': 30}
]

# Using sorted() function
sorted_data = sorted(data, key=lambda x: x['age'])

# If you want to sort in place, you can use sort() method
data.sort(key=lambda x: x['age'])

print(sorted_data)  # This will print the sorted list

      In this code:

      • sorted(data, key=lambda x: x['age']) creates a new sorted list based on the ‘age’ key.
      • data.sort(key=lambda x: x['age']) sorts the existing list in place.

      Make sure that when you access the ‘age’ key, you use square brackets [] instead of dot notation. That should fix the error you’re encountering. If you have any further questions or issues, feel free to ask!



    2. To sort a list of dictionaries based on a specific key, you can use the built-in sorted() function along with a lambda function that specifies the key to sort by. In your case, to sort the data list by the 'age' key, you can use the following code:

      sorted_data = sorted(data, key=lambda x: x['age'])

      Regarding the AttributeError you are encountering, it is likely because you are trying to access the key using dot notation (e.g., dict.X), which is not valid for dictionaries. Instead, ensure you are using square brackets to access dictionary keys (as in x['age']). With this approach, you should be able to sort your list without any errors.


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