Question

This code is supposed to be able to sort the items in self.array based upon the order of the characters in self.order. The method sort runs properly until the third iteration, unil for some reason the for loop seems to repeat indefinitely. What is going on here?

Edit: I’m making my own sort function because it is a bonus part of a python assignment I have.

class sorting_class:
    def __init__(self):
        self.array = ['ca', 'bd', 'ac', 'ab'] #An array of strings
        self.arrayt = []
        self.globali = 0
        self.globalii = 0
        self.order = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'] #Order of characters
        self.orderi = 0
        self.carry = []
        self.leave = []
        self.sortedlist = []
    def sort(self):
        for arrayi in self.arrayt:  #This should only loop for the number items in self.arrayt. However, the third time this is run it seems to loop indefinitely. 
            print ('run', arrayi)   #Shows the problem
            if self.order[self.orderi] == arrayi[self.globali]:
                self.carry.append(arrayi)
            else:
                if self.globali != 0:
                    self.leave.append(arrayi)
    def srt(self):
        self.arrayt = self.array
        my.sort() #First this runs the first time.
        while len(self.sortedlist) != len(self.array):
            if len(self.carry) == 1:
                self.sortedlist.append(self.carry)
                self.arrayt = self.leave
                self.leave = []
                self.carry = []
                self.globali = 1
                self.orderi = 0
                my.sort()
            elif len(self.carry) == 0:
                if len(self.leave) != 0: #Because nothing matches 'aa' during the second iteration, this code runs the third time"
                    self.arrayt = self.leave
                    self.globali = 1
                    self.orderi += 1
                    my.sort()
                else:
                    self.arrayt = self.array
                    self.globalii += 1
                    self.orderi = self.globalii
                    self.globali = 0
                    my.sort()
                    self.orderi = 0
            else: #This is what runs the second time.
                self.arrayt = self.carry
                self.carry = []
                self.globali += 1
                my.sort()
my = sorting_class()  
my.srt()

Answer 1

The key-extractor Alex mentions is trivial enough to put in a lambda function

>>> array = ['ca', 'bd', 'ac', 'ab']
>>> order = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']
>>> sorted(array, key=lambda v:map(order.index,v))
['ab', 'ac', 'bd', 'ca']

>>> order = ['b', 'a', 'c', 'd']
>>> sorted(array, key=lambda v:map(order.index,v))
['bd', 'ab', 'ac', 'ca']

>>> order = ['d', 'c', 'b', 'a']
>>> sorted(array, key=lambda v:map(order.index,v))
['ca', 'bd', 'ac', 'ab']

Let’s see how this works:

map calls the method order.index for each item in v and uses those return values to create a list.
v will be one of the elements of array

>>> order = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']
>>> map(order.index,array[0])
[2, 0]
>>> map(order.index,array[1])
[1, 3]
>>> map(order.index,array[2])
[0, 2]
>>> map(order.index,array[3])
[0, 1]

The function is supplied as a key= to sort, so internally those lists are being sorted instead of the strings.