Stockroom Program

[sneekula]

I am writing a small Python program for the use in our departments stockroom. This is what I have come up with (just starting):

# table of chemicals in stockroom
# order --> stock number, chemical name, quantity (grams)
# short version of the table
table = [
['ud-99137', 'm-chlorobenzoic acid', 750],
['ud-99672', 'potassium carbonate', 5000],
['ud-99083', 'aluminum chloride anh', 3500]
]
# pretty print the table
print '-'*66
print "%-10s   %-40s  %s" % ('stock', 'chemical', 'quantity(g)')
print '-'*66
for item in table:
    print "%-10s   %-40s  %8d" % (item[0], item[1], item[2])
print '-'*66

For right now I would like to sort this list of lists by stock number, chemical name and quantity on hand. Any ideas?

[vegaseat]

Here is one way you could sort your table by column. Also note that I put your pretty print into a function ...

# table of chemicals in stockroom as list of lists
# order --> stock number, chemical name, quantity (grams)

from operator import itemgetter

def sort_table(table, column_num):
    """
    sort a list of sublists that form a table by column number
    note that first column in table starts with column_num zero
    """
    return sorted(table, key=itemgetter(column_num))

def print_table(table):
    """
    pretty print the table
    """
    print '-'*66
    print "%-10s   %-40s  %s" % ('stock', 'chemical', 'quantity(g)')
    print '-'*66
    for item in table:
        print "%-10s   %-40s  %8d" % (item[SN], item[CN], item[QY])
    print '-'*66

# assign constants for the indexes
SN = 0  # index of stock number
CN = 1  # index of chemical name
QY = 2  # index of quantity

# short version of the table
table = [
['ud-99137', 'm-chlorobenzoic acid', 750],
['ud-99672', 'potassium carbonate', 5000],
['ud-99083', 'aluminum chloride anh', 3500]
]

print "original table:"
print_table(table)
print
print "table sorted by chemical name:"
table1 = sort_table(table, CN)
print_table(table1)

[sneekula]

Your code works vegaseat, but I have a problem with it. If you know anything about chemistry, there are several chlorobenzoic acids, ortho, meta and para, indicating the position of the chlorine in relation to the carboxylic acid. I would like the sort to keep the chlorobenzoic acids together, like the original table in the expanded data below:

# table of chemicals in stockroom as list of lists
# order --> stock number, chemical name, quantity (grams)
from operator import itemgetter
def sort_table(table, column_num):
    """
    sort a list of sublists that form a table by column number
    note that first column in table starts with column_num zero
    """
    return sorted(table, key=itemgetter(column_num))
def print_table(table):
    """
    pretty print the table
    """
    print '-'*66
    print "%-10s   %-40s  %s" % ('stock', 'chemical', 'quantity(g)')
    print '-'*66
    for item in table:
        print "%-10s   %-40s  %8d" % (item[0], item[1], item[2])
    print '-'*66
# assign constants
SN = 0  # index of stock number
CN = 1  # index of chemical name
QY = 2  # index of quantity
# short version of the table
table = [
['ud-99137', 'm-chlorobenzoic acid', 750],
['ud-99133', 'o-chlorobenzoic acid', 1500],
['ud-99139', 'p-chlorobenzoic acid', 600],
['ud-99672', 'potassium carbonate', 5000],
['ud-99083', 'aluminum chloride anh', 3500],
['ud-99412', 'nickel sulfate', 100],
['ud-99463', 'oleic acid', 250]
]
print "original table:"
print_table(table)
print
print "table sorted by chemical name:"
table1 = sort_table(table, CN)
print_table(table1)

Does anyone have an idea how to do this?

[Ene Uran]

Here is away to take care of chemical prefixes like 'o-', 'm-' and 'p-' when sorting. Just a little commonly used trick you can also use when sorting by your table columns:

# table of chemicals in stockroom as list of lists
# order --> stock number, chemical name, quantity (grams)

from operator import itemgetter

def sort_table(table, column_num):
    """
    sort a list of sublists that form a table by column number
    note that first column in table starts with column_num zero
    """
    return sorted(table, key=itemgetter(column_num))

def sort_chem(table):
    """
    this should take care of 'o-', 'm-' and 'p-' prefixes
    temporary change of sublist by adding modified chemical as first item
    sort this temp list and then rebuild by removing the temporary first item
    """
    temp = []
    for item in table:
        chem = item[CN]
        # removes leading 'o-' and adds '-o' to end for sort
        # you can add more similar prefixes here too
        if chem.startswith('o-'):
            chem = chem[2:] + '-o'
        if chem.startswith('m-'):
            chem = chem[2:] + '-m'
        if chem.startswith('p-'):
            chem = chem[2:] + '-p'        
        temp.append([chem,item])
    # this will sort by first item in each sublist
    temp.sort()
    new_table = []
    # rebuild the proper table
    for item in temp:
        #print item  # for test
        new_table.append(item[1])
    return new_table
 
def print_table(table):
    """
    pretty print the table
    """
    print '-'*66
    print "%-10s   %-40s  %s" % ('stock', 'chemical', 'quantity(g)')
    print '-'*66
    for item in table:
        print "%-10s   %-40s  %8d" % (item[0], item[1], item[2])
    print '-'*66

# assign constants
SN = 0  # index of stock number
CN = 1  # index of chemical name
QY = 2  # index of quantity

# short version of the table
table = [
['ud-99137', 'm-chlorobenzoic acid', 750],
['ud-99133', 'o-chlorobenzoic acid', 1500],
['ud-99139', 'p-chlorobenzoic acid', 600],
['ud-99672', 'potassium carbonate', 5000],
['ud-99083', 'aluminum chloride anh', 3500],
['ud-99412', 'nickel sulfate', 100],
['ud-99463', 'oleic acid', 250]
]

print "original table:"
print_table(table)
print
print "table sorted by chemical name:"
table1 = sort_table(table, CN)
print_table(table1)

print
print "table sorted by chemical name (modified sort):"
table2 = sort_chem(table)
print_table(table2)

[sneekula]

Thank you Mr. Uran! I am still trying to think my way through the details of the sort_chem function.