polars.LazyFrame.sort

LazyFrame.sort(
    by: IntoExpr | Iterable[IntoExpr],
    *more_by: IntoExpr,
    descending: bool | Sequence[bool] = False,
    nulls_last: bool | Sequence[bool] = False,
    maintain_order: bool = False,
    multithreaded: bool = True,
) → LazyFrame

Sort the LazyFrame by the given columns.

engine:In MemoryPartially Distributed

Parameters:

by

Column(s) to sort by. Accepts expression input, including selectors. Strings are parsed as column names.

*more_by

Additional columns to sort by, specified as positional arguments.

descending

Sort in descending order. When sorting by multiple columns, can be specified per column by passing a sequence of booleans.

nulls_last

Place null values last; can specify a single boolean applying to all columns or a sequence of booleans for per-column control.

maintain_order

Whether the order should be maintained if elements are equal. Note that if true streaming is not possible and performance might be worse since this requires a stable search.

multithreaded

Sort using multiple threads.

Examples

Pass a single column name to sort by that column.

>>> lf = pl.LazyFrame(
...     {
...         "a": [1, 2, None],
...         "b": [6.0, 5.0, 4.0],
...         "c": ["a", "c", "b"],
...     }
... )
>>> lf.sort("a").collect()
shape: (3, 3)
┌──────┬─────┬─────┐
│ a    ┆ b   ┆ c   │
│ ---  ┆ --- ┆ --- │
│ i64  ┆ f64 ┆ str │
╞══════╪═════╪═════╡
│ null ┆ 4.0 ┆ b   │
│ 1    ┆ 6.0 ┆ a   │
│ 2    ┆ 5.0 ┆ c   │
└──────┴─────┴─────┘

Sorting by expressions is also supported.

>>> lf.sort(pl.col("a") + pl.col("b") * 2, nulls_last=True).collect()
shape: (3, 3)
┌──────┬─────┬─────┐
│ a    ┆ b   ┆ c   │
│ ---  ┆ --- ┆ --- │
│ i64  ┆ f64 ┆ str │
╞══════╪═════╪═════╡
│ 2    ┆ 5.0 ┆ c   │
│ 1    ┆ 6.0 ┆ a   │
│ null ┆ 4.0 ┆ b   │
└──────┴─────┴─────┘

Sort by multiple columns by passing a list of columns.

>>> lf.sort(["c", "a"], descending=True).collect()
shape: (3, 3)
┌──────┬─────┬─────┐
│ a    ┆ b   ┆ c   │
│ ---  ┆ --- ┆ --- │
│ i64  ┆ f64 ┆ str │
╞══════╪═════╪═════╡
│ 2    ┆ 5.0 ┆ c   │
│ null ┆ 4.0 ┆ b   │
│ 1    ┆ 6.0 ┆ a   │
└──────┴─────┴─────┘

Or use positional arguments to sort by multiple columns in the same way.

>>> lf.sort("c", "a", descending=[False, True]).collect()
shape: (3, 3)
┌──────┬─────┬─────┐
│ a    ┆ b   ┆ c   │
│ ---  ┆ --- ┆ --- │
│ i64  ┆ f64 ┆ str │
╞══════╪═════╪═════╡
│ 1    ┆ 6.0 ┆ a   │
│ null ┆ 4.0 ┆ b   │
│ 2    ┆ 5.0 ┆ c   │
└──────┴─────┴─────┘