Sort list of strings by a specific locale

collate_specific.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import locale
default_locale = locale.getlocale(locale.LC_COLLATE)

def sort_strings(strings, locale_=None):
    if locale_ is None:
        return sorted(strings)
    
    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_COLLATE, locale_)
    sorted_strings = sorted(strings, cmp=locale.strcoll)
    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_COLLATE, default_locale)
    
    return sorted_strings

test_list = [u'a',u'џ',u'ш']

assert ' '.join( sort_strings(test_list, 'C') ) == u'a ш џ'
assert ' '.join( sort_strings(test_list, 'mk_MK.UTF-8') ) == u'a џ ш'
assert sort_strings(test_list, default_locale)==sort_strings(test_list)