Order by Name

Sort a list of names alphabetically, case-insensitively.

sorting strings lists

Write a function `order_by_name(names)` that takes a list of strings (names) and returns a new list with the names sorted in alphabetical order, ignoring case (so 'alice', 'Bob', 'charlie' sorts as ['alice', 'Bob', 'charlie']). The original list should remain unchanged. The sort should be stable: if two names are the same when case is ignored, their original relative order must be preserved. The function must not modify the input list.

Constraints

Input list length: 0 to 1000. Each name is a non-empty string of printable ASCII characters. Time complexity O(n log n), space complexity O(n).

Example

>>> order_by_name(['bob', 'Alice', 'carol'])
['Alice', 'bob', 'carol']
>>> order_by_name(['Zoe', 'amy', 'Bob'])
['amy', 'Bob', 'Zoe']
>>> order_by_name([])
[]

10 points ~10 min

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Hints

Use the `sorted` function with a `key` parameter.

To sort case-insensitively, use `key=str.lower`.

The `sorted` function returns a new list and does not modify the original.

Python's sort is stable, so equal keys preserve original order automatically.

Test Results

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