---
id: sortedcontainers
version: "2.4.0"
license: Apache 2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# sortedcontainers — Sorted Containers -- Sorted List, Sorted Dict, Sorted Set

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install sortedcontainers
uv add sortedcontainers
poetry add sortedcontainers

## Description

Python Sorted Containers
========================

`Sorted Containers`_ is an Apache2 licensed `sorted collections library`_,
written in pure-Python, and fast as C-extensions.

Python's standard library is great until you need a sorted collections
type. Many will attest that you can get really far without one, but the moment
you **really need** a sorted list, sorted dict, or sorted set, you're faced
with a dozen different implementations, most using C-extensions without great
documentation and benchmarking.

In Python, we can do better. And we can do it in pure-Python!

.. code-block:: python

    >>> from sortedcontainers import SortedList
    >>> sl = SortedList(['e', 'a', 'c', 'd', 'b'])
    >>> sl
    SortedList(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'])
    >>> sl *= 10_000_000
    >>> sl.count('c')
    10000000
    >>> sl[-3:]
    ['e', 'e', 'e']
    >>> from sortedcontainers import SortedDict
    >>> sd = SortedDict({'c': 3, 'a': 1, 'b': 2})
    >>> sd
    SortedDict({'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3})
    >>> sd.popitem(index=-1)
    ('c', 3)
    >>> from sortedcontainers import SortedSet
    >>> ss = SortedSet('abracadabra')
    >>> ss
    SortedSet(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'r'])
    >>>...

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