Sort a list by another unequal length list?

[mid-awe]

Hi all,

I am banging my head over this. I am building a block-table. As the blocks are found and counted I need to sort the list of blocks to a specific order. Currently I am sorting the blocks in alphabetical order, but I need to change that to order the blocks counted into an order of importance. If someone can set me in the right direction, I would be most appreciative. 

; MASTER LIST
(LIST "VECTOR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "6PORT" "9PORT" "12PORT" "2PORT4GEAR" "3PORT" "SF360" "CANISTER" "EDC" "FUSECANISTER" "VENTURI" "JET" "SWINGJET" "UV" "JETPACK" "O3" "AIRPORT" "SDX" "LEVELER" "SCOPE" "AIRBAR")

; POSSIBLE LIST BASED ON BLOCKS FOUND IN DRAWING
(LIST "3PORT" "9PORT" "AIRBAR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "SF360" "EDC" "VENTURI" "UV" "O3" "SDX" "LEVELER" "VECTOR")



; THE LIST AFTER BEING SORTED ACCORDING TO THE MASTER LIST
(LIST "VECTOR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "9PORT" "3PORT" "SF360" "EDC" "VENTURI" "UV" "O3" "SDX" "LEVELER" "AIRBAR")

All my attempts have failed. Please help.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

[Shneuph · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure if this is a no no.. But, what if you start with your master list and then remove items if the members of your drawing list are not members?

; MASTER LIST
(setq mlist (LIST "VECTOR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "6PORT" "9PORT" "12PORT" "2PORT4GEAR" "3PORT" "SF360" "CANISTER" "EDC" "FUSECANISTER" "VENTURI" "JET" "SWINGJET" "UV" "JETPACK" "O3" "AIRPORT" "SDX" "LEVELER" "SCOPE" "AIRBAR")
  mylist (LIST "3PORT" "9PORT" "AIRBAR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "SF360" "EDC" "VENTURI" "UV" "O3" "SDX" "LEVELER" "VECTOR")
      );setq

(foreach x mlist
  (if (not (member x mylist))
    (setq mlist (vl-remove x mlist))
    );if
    );foreach

Just the 1st thing that came to mind.

[mid-awe]

Thank you. That may work. Good thinking.

[john.uhden]

It may not be a significant difference with short lists, but I have found that vl-position works a lot faster than member.

[patrick_35]

Hi

An another

(setq mlist (LIST "VECTOR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "6PORT" "9PORT" "12PORT" "2PORT4GEAR" "3PORT" "SF360" "CANISTER" "EDC" "FUSECANISTER" "VENTURI" "JET" "SWINGJET" "UV" "JETPACK" "O3" "AIRPORT" "SDX" "LEVELER" "SCOPE" "AIRBAR")
      mylist (LIST "3PORT" "9PORT" "AIRBAR" "ROTATING" "STEP" "FIXEDSIZE" "FIXEDQTY" "SF360" "EDC" "VENTURI" "UV" "O3" "SDX" "LEVELER" "VECTOR")
)

(vl-remove-if-not '(lambda(x)(vl-position x mylist)) mlist)

@+

[mid-awe]

Thank you all. I'll give it a another go with these great suggestions. I'm sure these solutions will work.

[mid-awe]

Afterall I went this direction. MyList is actually dotted pairs and it was much easier to get my data where I needed it like you have it here. Thank you Shneuph.