Function & Library for Merge Sort in Python (2 Examples)

In this article, I’ll show how to use the sorting library to implement the merge sort algorithm in the Python programming language.

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If you want to learn more about these topics, keep reading!

Example Data & Libraries

Firstly, let’s import the sorting project which will be used to work with a pre-developed merge sort algorithm. sorting project is an open-source project developed by a fellow programmer known by the alias yoginth.

If you want more information about the project, you can click here. Furthermore, if you want to check other projects of them you can view their profile here.

import sorting                      # importing sorting library

Now let’s create some example lists. One is an integer list called data, the other is a string list called data_str.

data = [1, 8, 3, 5, 6, 9, 2, 4]     # creating sample list of integers
data_str = ['stat', 'abc', 'hello'] # creating sample list of strings

Without further ado, let’s see how to use the function running the merge sort algorithm.

Example 1: Sort an Integer List via the sorting.merge() Function

The function sorting.merge() can be easily utilized to sort the integer list data, as shown below.

res = sorting.merge(data)           # sorting the list of integers
print(res)
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9]

The printed result shows that the list data is successfully sorted.

Example 2: Sort a String List via the sorting.merge() Function

In this example, I’ll show how a string list can be sorted using the sorting.merge() function.

res_str = sorting.merge(data_str)   # sorting the string list
print(res_str)                      # printing the sorted string list
# ['abc', 'hello', 'stat']

As you can see with a single line of code we managed to sort the string list data _str.

Video & Further Resources

Would you like to learn more about the utilization of the library for merge sort in python? Then you could have a look at the following video on my YouTube channel. I’m explaining the Python programming code of this tutorial in the video.

The YouTube video will be added soon.

In addition, you might read some of the other articles on my website:

• Sort List of Dictionaries in Python
• Sort List of datetime Objects in Python
• Sort Index of pandas DataFrame in Python
• Python Programming Language

In this Python article, you have learned how to sort lists of integers and strings using the merge sort library in Python. If you have additional questions, let me know in the comments section.

This page was created in collaboration with Ömer Ekiz. Have a look at Ömer’s author page to get more information about his professional background, a list of all his tutorials, as well as an overview of his other tasks on Statistics Globe.