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numpy.argsort() ⚬｜Documentation｜1st｜202510211245-00-⌔

numpy.argsort — NumPy v2.4 Manual#numpy.argsort

numpy.argsort(a, axis=-1, kind=None, order=None, ﹡, stable=None, descending=<no value>)

Returns the indices that would sort an array.

Perform an indirect sort along the given axis using the algorithm specified by the kind keyword. It returns an array of indices of the same shape as a that index data along the given axis in sorted order.

Parameters:

a: array_like

Array to sort.

axis: int or None, optional

Axis along which to sort. The default is -1 (the last axis). If None, the flattened array is used.

kind: {‘quicksort’, ‘mergesort’, ‘heapsort’, ‘stable’}, optional

Sorting algorithm. The default is ‘quicksort’. Note that both ‘stable’ and ‘mergesort’ use timsort under the covers and, in general, the actual implementation will vary with data type. The ‘mergesort’ option is retained for backwards compatibility.

order: str or list of str, optional

When a is an array with fields defined, this argument specifies which fields to compare first, second, etc. A single field can be specified as a string, and not all fields need be specified, but unspecified fields will still be used, in the order in which they come up in the dtype, to break ties.

stable: bool, optional

Sort stability. If True, the returned array will maintain the relative order of a values which compare as equal. If False or None, this is not guaranteed. Internally, this option selects kind='stable'. Default: None.

New in version 2.0.0.

descending: bool, optional

Sort order. If True, the returned array will be sorted in descending order. If False or None, the returned array will be sorted in ascending order. Values that are NaN are sorted to the end for both orders. Default: None.

New in version 2.5.0.

Returns:

index_array: ndarray, int

Array of indices that sort a along the specified axis. If a is one-dimensional, a[index_array] yields a sorted a. More generally, np.take_along_axis(a, index_array, axis=axis) always yields the sorted a, irrespective of dimensionality.

See also:

sort

Describes sorting algorithms used.

lexsort

Indirect stable sort with multiple keys.

ndarray.sort

Inplace sort.

argpartition

Indirect partial sort.

take_along_axis

Apply index_array from argsort to an array as if by calling sort.

Notes:

See sort for notes on the different sorting algorithms.

As of NumPy 1.4.0 argsort works with real/complex arrays containing nan values. The enhanced sort order is documented in sort.

Examples:

One dimensional array:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> x = np.array([3, 1, 2])
>>> np.argsort(x)
array([1, 2, 0])

Two-dimensional array:

>>> x = np.array([[0, 3], [2, 2]])
>>> x
array([[0, 3],
      [2, 2]])

>>> ind = np.argsort(x, axis=0)  # sorts along first axis (down)
>>> ind
array([[0, 1],
      [1, 0]])
>>> np.take_along_axis(x, ind, axis=0)  # same as np.sort(x, axis=0)
array([[0, 2],
      [2, 3]])

>>> ind = np.argsort(x, axis=1)  # sorts along last axis (across)
>>> ind
array([[0, 1],
      [0, 1]])
>>> np.take_along_axis(x, ind, axis=1)  # same as np.sort(x, axis=1)
array([[0, 3],
      [2, 2]])

Indices of the sorted elements of an N-dimensional array:

>>> ind = np.unravel_index(np.argsort(x, axis=None), x.shape)
>>> ind
(array([0, 1, 1, 0]), array([0, 0, 1, 1]))
>>> x[ind]  # same as np.sort(x, axis=None)
array([0, 2, 2, 3])

Sorting with keys:

>>> x = np.array([(1, 0), (0, 1)], dtype=[('x', '<i4'), ('y', '<i4')])
>>> x
array([(1, 0), (0, 1)],
     dtype=[('x', '<i4'), ('y', '<i4')])

>>> np.argsort(x, order=('x','y'))
array([1, 0])

>>> np.argsort(x, order=('y','x'))
array([0, 1])

Printed 2026-06-28.

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