Map is a common way to transform lists in most programming languages. In Python, map is a function that loops over a list and applies a function (that you provide) to each item. Your function receives ...

As an FYI, nosferatu-man's and my solutions are better than S. Carton's, but require Python 2.4. The "key" parameter to sort/sorted does a "Decorate-Sort-Undecorate" [1] automatically, whereas the ...