How to sort objects by multiple keys?

This answer works for any kind of column in the dictionary -- the negated column need not be a number.

def multikeysort(items, columns):
    from operator import itemgetter
    comparers = [((itemgetter(col[1:].strip()), -1) if col.startswith('-') else
                  (itemgetter(col.strip()), 1)) for col in columns]
    def comparer(left, right):
        for fn, mult in comparers:
            result = cmp(fn(left), fn(right))
            if result:
                return mult * result
        else:
            return 0
    return sorted(items, cmp=comparer)

You can call it like this:

b = [{u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Utley, Alex', u'Total_Points': 96.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Russo, Brandon', u'Total_Points': 96.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Chappell, Justin', u'Total_Points': 96.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Foster, Toney', u'Total_Points': 80.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Lawson, Roman', u'Total_Points': 80.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Lempke, Sam', u'Total_Points': 80.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Gnezda, Alex', u'Total_Points': 78.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Kirks, Damien', u'Total_Points': 78.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Worden, Tom', u'Total_Points': 78.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Korecz, Mike', u'Total_Points': 78.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Swartz, Brian', u'Total_Points': 66.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Burgess, Randy', u'Total_Points': 66.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Smugala, Ryan', u'Total_Points': 66.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Harmon, Gary', u'Total_Points': 66.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Blasinsky, Scott', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Carter III, Laymon', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Coleman, Johnathan', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Venditti, Nick', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Blackwell, Devon', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Kovach, Alex', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Bolden, Antonio', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
     {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Smith, Ryan', u'Total_Points': 60.0}]

a = multikeysort(b, ['-Total_Points', 'TOT_PTS_Misc'])
for item in a:
    print item

Try it with either column negated. You will see the sort order reverse.

Next: change it so it does not use extra class....

2016-01-17

Taking my inspiration from this answer What is the best way to get the first item from an iterable matching a condition?, I shortened the code:

from operator import itemgetter as i

def multikeysort(items, columns):
    comparers = [
        ((i(col[1:].strip()), -1) if col.startswith('-') else (i(col.strip()), 1))
        for col in columns
    ]
    def comparer(left, right):
        comparer_iter = (
            cmp(fn(left), fn(right)) * mult
            for fn, mult in comparers
        )
        return next((result for result in comparer_iter if result), 0)
    return sorted(items, cmp=comparer)

In case you like your code terse.

Later 2016-01-17

This works with python3 (which eliminated the cmp argument to sort):

from operator import itemgetter as i
from functools import cmp_to_key

def cmp(x, y):
    """
    Replacement for built-in function cmp that was removed in Python 3

    Compare the two objects x and y and return an integer according to
    the outcome. The return value is negative if x < y, zero if x == y
    and strictly positive if x > y.

    https://portingguide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/comparisons.html#the-cmp-function
    """

    return (x > y) - (x < y)

def multikeysort(items, columns):
    comparers = [
        ((i(col[1:].strip()), -1) if col.startswith('-') else (i(col.strip()), 1))
        for col in columns
    ]
    def comparer(left, right):
        comparer_iter = (
            cmp(fn(left), fn(right)) * mult
            for fn, mult in comparers
        )
        return next((result for result in comparer_iter if result), 0)
    return sorted(items, key=cmp_to_key(comparer))

Inspired by this answer How should I do custom sort in Python 3?

def sortkeypicker(keynames):
    negate = set()
    for i, k in enumerate(keynames):
        if k[:1] == '-':
            keynames[i] = k[1:]
            negate.add(k[1:])
    def getit(adict):
       composite = [adict[k] for k in keynames]
       for i, (k, v) in enumerate(zip(keynames, composite)):
           if k in negate:
               composite[i] = -v
       return composite
    return getit

a = sorted(b, key=sortkeypicker(['-Total_Points', 'TOT_PTS_Misc']))

I had a similar issue today - I had to sort dictionary items by descending numeric values and by ascending string values. To solve the issue of conflicting directions, I negated the integer values.

Here's a variant of my solution - as applicable to OP

sorted(b, key=lambda e: (-e['Total_Points'], e['TOT_PTS_Misc']))

Very simple - and works like a charm

[{'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Chappell, Justin', 'Total_Points': 96.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Russo, Brandon', 'Total_Points': 96.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Utley, Alex', 'Total_Points': 96.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Foster, Toney', 'Total_Points': 80.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Lawson, Roman', 'Total_Points': 80.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Lempke, Sam', 'Total_Points': 80.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Gnezda, Alex', 'Total_Points': 78.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Kirks, Damien', 'Total_Points': 78.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Korecz, Mike', 'Total_Points': 78.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Worden, Tom', 'Total_Points': 78.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Burgess, Randy', 'Total_Points': 66.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Harmon, Gary', 'Total_Points': 66.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Smugala, Ryan', 'Total_Points': 66.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Swartz, Brian', 'Total_Points': 66.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Blackwell, Devon', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Blasinsky, Scott', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Bolden, Antonio', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Carter III, Laymon', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Coleman, Johnathan', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Kovach, Alex', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Smith, Ryan', 'Total_Points': 60.0},
 {'TOT_PTS_Misc': 'Venditti, Nick', 'Total_Points': 60.0}]

from operator import itemgetter
from functools import partial

def _neg_itemgetter(key, d):
    return -d[key]

def key_getter(key_expr):
    keys = key_expr.split(",")
    getters = []
    for k in keys:
        k = k.strip()
        if k.startswith("-"):
           getters.append(partial(_neg_itemgetter, k[1:]))
        else:
           getters.append(itemgetter(k))

    def keyfunc(dct):
        return [kg(dct) for kg in getters]

    return keyfunc

def multikeysort(dict_list, sortkeys):
    return sorted(dict_list, key = key_getter(sortkeys)

Demonstration:

>>> multikeysort([{u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Utley, Alex', u'Total_Points': 60.0},
                 {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Russo, Brandon', u'Total_Points': 96.0}, 
                 {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Chappell, Justin', u'Total_Points': 96.0}],
                "-Total_Points,TOT_PTS_Misc")
[{u'Total_Points': 96.0, u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Chappell, Justin'}, 
 {u'Total_Points': 96.0, u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Russo, Brandon'}, 
 {u'Total_Points': 60.0, u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Utley, Alex'}]

The parsing is a bit fragile, but at least it allows for variable number of spaces between the keys.

Since you're already comfortable with lambda, here's a less verbose solution.

>>> def itemgetter(*names):
    return lambda mapping: tuple(-mapping[name[1:]] if name.startswith('-') else mapping[name] for name in names)

>>> itemgetter('a', '-b')({'a': 1, 'b': 2})
(1, -2)