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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Let's Build a Timed Quiz App Timestamp Ordering

Using sorted() versus list.sort()

For this task, when I used times.sort() instead of sorted(times) I got the following error: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable. I was wondering why times.sort() does not work. The code below passed the challenge.

timestamp.py
# If you need help, look up datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp()
# Also, remember that you *will not* know how many timestamps
# are coming in.

import datetime


def timestamp_oldest(*args):
    times = []
    for arg in args:
        times.append(datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(arg))
    oldest = sorted(times)
    return oldest[0]

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

The .sort() function does not return a value.

It directly sorts the list you apply it to. But you could do this:

    # ...same up through the loop...
    times.sort()
    return times[0]

Thanks for the clarification! Do you know why the following does not work?

oldest = times.sort()
return oldest[0]
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Yes, just as I said, it's because the .sort() function does not return a value:

oldest = times.sort()  # this sorts times, but sets oldest to None
return oldest[0]       # so this tries to subscript "None" (causing an error)