Question: Suppose I have a list like this:

```
['v_1', 'v_2', 'v_8', 'v_5']

```

How can I get 8 from this list?

Answer: 
```
max(l, key=lambda s: int(s[2:]))

```
`max` takes a keyword argument that lets you specify a function to transform each list element before doing the comparisons to find the largest.

Compare the following:

```
# Lexicographically, `v_8` is bigger than `v_12`
>>> max(['v_1', 'v_2', 'v_8', 'v_5', 'v_12'])
'v_8'

# Numerically, 12 > 8 after striping the v_ prefix and treating
# the remainder as an integer
>>>>>> max(['v_1', 'v_2', 'v_8', 'v_5', 'v_12'], key=lambda x: int(x[2:]))
'v_12'

```