pyStudentListCreation

# A text file contains the following lines:
# last name, first name, middle name, birth year
# Output required:
# first initial, 2nd initial, last name, birth year
# The output is to be in ascending order of birth year
# Where 2 students have the same birth year, list then in the order they appeared in input file


# Here is my input as it might appear in a list of lines read in from an input file
# Note that the 2nd and 4th students have the same birth year, and must appear in the output with Jones before Fox
my_input = ["John,William,Smith,1990", "Lucy,Mary,Jones,1992", "Jack,Amos,Black,1991", "Brenda,Kate,Fox,1992"]

my_temp = []            # Define an empty list into which we will put the data to be sorted

for x, line_in in enumerate(my_input):      # 'enumerate' gives us the index of a line in the input, plus the line

    data_list = line_in.split(',')          # split the input line on comma, giving a list of data items

    year = data_list[3]                     # year is item 3 from input line
    surname = data_list[2]                  # surname is item 2
    first_initial = data_list[0][0]         # get the initial only from first name
    middle_initial = data_list[1][0]        # get the initial only from middle name

    # Add a tuple to our temp list, ready for sorting
    # Note that we include 'x' which is the index from the input list,
    # so that we get the desired sequence where equal birth years exist
    my_temp.append((year, x, first_initial, middle_initial, surname))

# Sort the temp list in situ
my_temp.sort()

# Iterate through the sorted list, printing the required items
for data in my_temp:
    print(f"{data[0]} {data[2]} {data[3]} {data[4]}")

# Output:
# 1990 J W Smith
# 1991 J A Black
# 1992 L M Jones
# 1992 B K Fox