How to sort list depending on substring?

Question

I have this list sorted:

>>> L = ['actor_1', 'actor_3', 'actor_130', 'actor_55', 'actor_5']
>>> L.sort()
>>> L
['actor_1', 'actor_130', 'actor_3', 'actor_5', 'actor_55']

Is there a clean way to make the list sortable by the number after underline to have it like the following?:

['actor_1', 'actor_3', 'actor_5', 'actor_55', 'actor_130']

Answer 1

You can specify key function which generate comparison key:

>>> L = ['actor_1', 'actor_3', 'actor_130', 'actor_55', 'actor_5']
>>> def sort_key(s):
...     s, n = s.split('_')
...     return s, int(n)
...
>>> L.sort(key=sort_key)
>>> L
['actor_1', 'actor_3', 'actor_5', 'actor_55', 'actor_130']