modify natural_sort and return list to avoid having side effect

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/wqflask/wqflask/show_trait/SampleList.py b/wqflask/wqflask/show_trait/SampleList.py
index 37c1d6d5..6a056144 100644
--- a/wqflask/wqflask/show_trait/SampleList.py
+++ b/wqflask/wqflask/show_trait/SampleList.py
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ class SampleList(object):
 
         return first_attr_col
 
-def natural_sort(list, key=lambda s: s):
+def natural_sort(a_list, key=lambda s: s):
     """
     Sort the list into natural alphanumeric order.
     """
@@ -170,4 +170,8 @@ def natural_sort(list, key=lambda s: s):
         def convert(text): return int(text) if text.isdigit() else text
         return lambda s: [convert(c) for c in re.split('([0-9]+)', key(s))]
     sort_key = get_alphanum_key_func(key)
-    list.sort(key=sort_key)
\ No newline at end of file
+
+    sorted_list=sorted(a_list,key=sort_key)
+
+    return sorted_list
+    
\ No newline at end of file