[python] Python data structure sort list alphabetically

I am a bit confused regarding data structure in python; (),[], and {}. I am trying to sort a simple list, probably since I cannot identify the type of data I am failing to sort it.

My list is simple: ['Stem', 'constitute', 'Sedge', 'Eflux', 'Whim', 'Intrigue']

My question is what type of data this is, and how to sort the words alphabetically?

>>> a = ()
>>> type(a)
<type 'tuple'>
>>> a = []
>>> type(a)
<type 'list'>
>>> a = {}
>>> type(a)
<type 'dict'>
>>> a =  ['Stem', 'constitute', 'Sedge', 'Eflux', 'Whim', 'Intrigue'] 
>>> a.sort()
>>> a
['Eflux', 'Intrigue', 'Sedge', 'Stem', 'Whim', 'constitute']
>>> 

ListName.sort() will sort it alphabetically. You can add reverse=False/True in the brackets to reverse the order of items: ListName.sort(reverse=False)

You can use built-in sorted function.

print sorted(['Stem', 'constitute', 'Sedge', 'Eflux', 'Whim', 'Intrigue'])

You're dealing with a python list, and sorting it is as easy as doing this.

my_list = ['Stem', 'constitute', 'Sedge', 'Eflux', 'Whim', 'Intrigue']
my_list.sort()

Python has a built-in function called sorted, which will give you a sorted list from any iterable you feed it (such as a list ([1,2,3]); a dict ({1:2,3:4}, although it will just return a sorted list of the keys; a set ({1,2,3,4); or a tuple ((1,2,3,4))).

>>> x = [3,2,1]
>>> sorted(x)
[1, 2, 3]
>>> x
[3, 2, 1]

Lists also have a sort method that will perform the sort in-place (x.sort() returns None but changes the x object) .

>>> x = [3,2,1]
>>> x.sort()
>>> x
[1, 2, 3]

Both also take a key argument, which should be a callable (function/lambda) you can use to change what to sort by.
For example, to get a list of (key,value)-pairs from a dict which is sorted by value you can use the following code:

>>> x = {3:2,2:1,1:5}
>>> sorted(x.items(), key=lambda kv: kv[1])  # Items returns a list of `(key,value)`-pairs
[(2, 1), (3, 2), (1, 5)]