Sorting a List of Timestamps with Milliseconds in Python - Precision Issues
I'm following best practices but I am trying to sort a list of timestamps in Python that include milliseconds, but I'm running into precision issues when using the built-in `sorted()` function. My timestamps are in string format like `"2023-10-01T12:30:45.123Z"` and I need to sort them in chronological order. I attempted to parse them using the `datetime` module, but when I do the sorting, it does not seem to account for milliseconds correctly, and I end up with an incorrect order. Here's what I've tried: ```python from datetime import datetime timestamps = ["2023-10-01T12:30:45.001Z", "2023-10-01T12:30:45.123Z", "2023-10-01T12:30:45.045Z"] # Attempting to convert and sort sorted_timestamps = sorted(timestamps, key=lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ")) print(sorted_timestamps) ``` Instead of getting the expected order of `"2023-10-01T12:30:45.001Z", "2023-10-01T12:30:45.045Z", "2023-10-01T12:30:45.123Z"`, it returns: ``` ['2023-10-01T12:30:45.001Z', '2023-10-01T12:30:45.123Z', '2023-10-01T12:30:45.045Z'] ``` It seems like the sorting is not handling the milliseconds correctly. I am using Python 3.9.1. Am I missing something in my sorting logic or is there a better way to handle this? Any help would be appreciated! This is happening in both development and production on CentOS. My development environment is Windows 10. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm working in a macOS environment. Is there a simpler solution I'm overlooking?