Sorting a list of dicts on a complex key

sort_dict_multiple_keys.py

# This gist can be seen live on http://codepad.org/gVPznGJ8

my_structure = [
    {
        'name': 'david',
        'key': {
            'subkey': 'value2',
        },
    },
    {
        'name': 'david',
        'key': {
            'subkey': 'value3',
        },
    },
    {
        'name': 'jim',
        'key': {
            'subkey': 'value1',
        },
    },
    {
        'name': 'bob',
        'key': {
            'subkey': 'value4',
        },
    },
]

# Define our sort function, which given an item in the list above,
#   returns a tuple of important keys to sort on
sort_function = lambda x: (x.get('name'), x.get('key', {}).get('subkey'))

print(u'Using sorted, which uses a tuple of keys to sort a deep tree on')
print(sorted(my_structure, key=sort_function))

print(u'Using inline sort')
my_structure.sort(key=sort_function)
print(my_structure)