Insert Element into Sorted List in Python

In this article, we will learn about the solution to the problem statement given below.

Problem statement − We are given a list, we need to insert an element in a list without changing sorted order

There are two approaches as discussed below−

Approach 1: The brute-force method

Example

 Live Demo

def insert(list_, n):
   # search
   for i in range(len(list_)):
      if list_[i] > n:
         index = i
         break
   # Insertion
   list_ = list_[:i] + [n] + list_[i:]
   return list_
# Driver function
list_ = ['t','u','t','o','r']
n = 'e'
print(insert(list_, n))

Output

['e', 't', 'u', 't', 'o', 'r']

Approach 2: Using the bisect module

Example

 Live Demo

#built-in bisect module
import bisect
def insert(list_, n):
   bisect.insort(list_, n)
   return list_
list_ = ['t','u','t','o','r']
n = 'e'
print(insert(list_, n))

Output

['e', 't', 'u', 't', 'o', 'r']

All the variables are declared in the local scope and their references are seen in the figure above.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned about how we can insert an element in a sorted list.