>>> from operator import itemgetter, attrgetter, methodcaller >>> sorted(student_tuples, key=itemgetter(2)) [('dave', 'B', 10), ('jane', 'B', 12), ('john', 'A', 15)] >>> sorted(student_objects, key=attrgetter('age')) [('dave', 'B', 10), ('jane', 'B', 12), ('john', 'A', 15)] >>> sorted(student_tuples, key=itemgetter(1,2)) [('john', 'A', 15), ('dave', 'B', 10), ('jane', 'B', 12)] >>> sorted(student_objects, key=attrgetter('grade', 'age')) [('john', 'A', 15), ('dave', 'B', 10), ('jane', 'B', 12)]