Sorting a List of Dictionaries by Date Strings in Python - Unexpected Order with datetime.strptime
I'm trying to implement I'm collaborating on a project where This might be a silly question, but I'm trying to sort a list of dictionaries based on a date string stored in one of the dictionary keys. The date strings are in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD', but when I apply the sorting, I get an unexpected order. For example, I expected '2023-01-01' to come before '2023-01-02', but it seems like the sorting is treating them as strings rather than actual dates. Here's the code I'm currently using: ```python from datetime import datetime data = [ {'name': 'Event A', 'date': '2023-01-02'}, {'name': 'Event B', 'date': '2023-01-01'}, {'name': 'Event C', 'date': '2023-01-03'} ] sorted_data = sorted(data, key=lambda x: datetime.strptime(x['date'], '%Y-%m-%d')) ``` When I run this, it sorts correctly, but I am uncertain if using `datetime.strptime` in the key function is the most efficient way, especially with a larger dataset. Is there a better approach? Also, are there any performance implications I should be aware of, especially if the list grows to thousands of entries? Any tips on optimizing this would be appreciated! Am I missing something obvious? What's the best practice here? My team is using Python for this service. Could this be a known issue? I'm working with Python in a Docker container on Ubuntu 22.04. Cheers for any assistance!