title: Python: Sorting a list by class objects
body: <p>Working on a project for CS1, and I am close to cracking it, but this part of the code has stumped me! The object of the project is to create a list of the top 20 names in any given year by referencing a file with thousands of names on it. Each line in each file contains the name, gender, and how many times it occurs. This file is seperated by gender (so female names in order of their occurences followed by male names in order of their occurences). I have gotten the code to a point where each entry is contained within a class in a list (so this list is a long list of memory entries). Here is the code I have up to this point.</p>
  
  <pre><code>class entry():
      __slots__ = ('name' , 'sex' , 'occ')
  
  def mkEntry( name, sex, occ ):
      dat = entry()
      dat.name = name
      dat.sex = sex
      dat.occ = occ
      return dat
  
  ##test = mkEntry('Mary', 'F', '7065')
  ##print(test.name, test.sex, test.occ)
  
  def readFile(fileName):
      fullset = []
      for line in open(fileName):
          val = line.split(",")
          sett = mkEntry(val[0] , val[1] , int(val[2]))
          fullset.append(sett)
      return fullset
  
  fullset = readFile("names/yob1880.txt")
  print(fullset)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What I am wondering if I can do at this point is can I sort this list via usage of sort() or other functions, but sort the list by their occurrences (dat.occ in each entry) so in the end result I will have a list sorted independently of gender and then at that point I can print the first entries in the list, as they should be what I am seeking. Is it possible to sort the list like this?</p>