Python "indexerror: String Index Out Of Range" (beginner)

So for a Programming assignment we have to re write the sort function in python to sort a list of words. So far I have made it able to sort the words based of the first letter of e

Solution 1:

you have to change this:

eliford(word[num])==ord(wordleft[num]):
     num=num+1
     word_checker(bookwords, num, i)
 else:

to:

eliford(word[num])==ord(wordleft[num]):
     num=num+1else:

then it will print: ['maddy', 'mega', 'money', 'michael', 'michelle', 'miniscus', 'monstor', 'mountain']

i don't see the point of doing recursion there anyway, i think insertion sort doesn't do recursion.

update

The algorithm was broken when comparing by character, but python can compare the strings for you, so this will give the right result:

def insertion_sort(bookwords):
    for index in range(1,len(bookwords)):
        global word
        word=bookwords[index]
        i=index-1word_checker(bookwords, i)

def word_checker(bookwords,  i):
    while i>=0:
        wordleft=bookwords[i]
        if word<wordleft:
            bookwords[i+1]=bookwords[i]
            bookwords[i]=word
        i=i-1

bookwords=["michael", "maddy", "michelle", "monstor", "money", "mountain", "miniscus", "mega"]
insertion_sort(bookwords)
print bookwords #prints ['maddy', 'mega', 'michael', 'michelle', 'miniscus', 'money', 'monstor', 'mountain']

Solution 2:

Several things:

• Python zero-indexes strings (so from 0 to len(string)-1). and
• Consider just using "for" to go through each letter.