How to find the highest floating number value in a given list of strings in Python?

Question

I have a list of data which contains some alphanumeric contents.

list_data = ['version_v_8.5.json', 'version_v_8.4.json', 'version_v_10.1.json']

i want to get the highest element which is "version_v_10.1.json" from the list.

Are you sure those are floating point numbers? Which one is higher: version_v_10.2 or version_v_10.10? — Sören, Dec 22 '22 at 18:46
max(list_data) but its giving me "version_v_8.5.json" as the highest value — tins johny, Dec 22 '22 at 18:47
Does this answer your question? [Sorting a list of dot-separated numbers, like software versions](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2574080/sorting-a-list-of-dot-separated-numbers-like-software-versions) — Sören, Dec 22 '22 at 18:47
There is also the module [comp_version](https://pypi.org/project/cmp_version/) — Chris Charley, Dec 22 '22 at 19:54

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 22 '22 at 18:48

sort using natsort then get last elemnt(which is highest version)

from natsort import natsorted
list_data = ['version_v_8.5.json', 'version_v_8.4.json', 'version_v_10.1.json']
list_data = natsorted(list_data)
print(list_data.pop())

outputs #

version_v_10.1.json

S.B · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-22T19:06:59.163

1

You can do the following:

import re

list_data = [
    "version_v_8.5.json",
    "version_v_8.4.json",
    "version_v_10.1.json",
    "version_v_10.2.json",   ####
    "version_v_10.10.json",  ####
]

pat = re.compile(r"version_v_(.*).json")

print(max(list_data, key=lambda x: [int(i) for i in pat.match(x).group(1).split(".")]))

Your interested number is the first group of the regex r"version_v_(.*).json". You then need to split it to get a list of numbers and convert each number to int. At the end, you basically compare list of integers together like [8, 5], [8, 4], [10, 1] .etc.

This way it correctly finds "version_v_10.10.json" larger than "version_v_10.2.json" as they are software versions.

edited Dec 22 '22 at 19:06

answered Dec 22 '22 at 18:56

S.B

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I'd recommend this answer because it uses the stdlib – SimonT Dec 22 '22 at 21:00
@SimonT Some less known 3rd-party libraries do an awesome job from time to time but it really depends on the task you're dealing with. For simple tasks, I definately use builtin tools. No need create too much extra dependencies and make the project bigger for nothing. Dependencies always come with costs...Do they constantly update the package? and etc. – S.B Dec 22 '22 at 21:06
1

I always try to use stdlib if I can mainly due to their efficiency and optimisation, especially re.compile in this case. But yes you are highly correct in that it does depend on use case. Especially when you don't want to rely on dependencies as a package etc. – SimonT Dec 22 '22 at 21:08
1

I guess that's just Stackoverflow users for you :( – SimonT Dec 22 '22 at 21:23

How to find the highest floating number value in a given list of strings in Python?

2 Answers2