pandas custom sorting multilevel index

Question

I have the following example dataset, and I'd like to sort the index columns by a custom order that is not contained within the dataframe. So far looking on SO I haven't been able to solve this. Example:

import pandas as pd

data = {'s':[1,1,1,1], 
        'am':['cap', 'cap', 'sea', 'sea'], 
        'cat':['i', 'o', 'i', 'o'],
        'col1':[.55, .44, .33, .22],
        'col2':[.77, .66, .55, .44]}

df = pd.DataFrame(data=data)
df.set_index(['s', 'am', 'cat'], inplace=True)

Out[1]: 
           col1  col2
s am  cat            
1 cap i    0.55  0.77
      o    0.44  0.66
  sea i    0.33  0.55
      o    0.22  0.44

What I would like is the following:

Out[2]: 
           col1  col2
s am  cat            
1 sea i    0.33  0.55
      o    0.22  0.44
  cap i    0.55  0.77
      o    0.44  0.66

and I might also want to sort by 'cat' with the order ['o', 'i'], as well.

Answer 1

Use sort_values and sort_index

df.sort_values(df.columns.tolist()).sort_index(level=1, ascending=False, 
                                                        sort_remaining=False)

              col1  col2
s   am   cat        
1   sea  i    0.33  0.55
         o    0.22  0.44
    cap  i    0.55  0.77
         o    0.44  0.66

Convert the index to categorical to get the custom order.

data = {'s':[1,1,1,1], 
            'am':['cap', 'cap', 'sea', 'sea'], 
            'cat':['i', 'j', 'k', 'l'],
            'col1':[.55, .44, .33, .22],
            'col2':[.77, .66, .55, .44]}

df = pd.DataFrame(data=data)
df.set_index(['s', 'am', 'cat'], inplace=True)

idx = pd.Categorical(df.index.get_level_values(2).values,
          categories=['j','i','k','l'],
          ordered=True)

df.index.set_levels(idx, level='cat', inplace=True)

df.reset_index().sort_values('cat').set_index(['s','am','cat'])

             col1   col2
s   am  cat     
1   cap  j   0.44   0.66
         i   0.55   0.77
    sea  k   0.33   0.55
         l   0.22   0.44