fix: update patience sort to support mixed data types

sorts/patience_sort.py

@@ -6,13 +6,16 @@
 from typing import Protocol
 
 """
-A pure Python implementation of the patience sort algorithm
+A pure Python implementation of the patience sort algorithm.
 
 For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_sorting
 
-This algorithm is based on the card game patience
+This algorithm is based on the card game patience.
 
-For doctests run following command:
+This version can sort integers, floats, and strings using
+mixed_patience_sort().
+
+For doctests run the following command:
 python3 -m doctest -v patience_sort.py
 
 For manual testing run:
@@ -35,13 +38,10 @@ def __eq__(self, other: object) -> bool:
         return self[-1] == other[-1]
 
 
-def patience_sort[T: Comparable](collection: list[T]) -> list[T]:
-    """A pure implementation of patience sort algorithm in Python
-
-    :param collection: some mutable ordered collection with heterogeneous
-    comparable items inside
-    :return: the same collection ordered by ascending
-
+def patience_sort(collection: list) -> list:
+    """Sort a collection using the patience sort algorithm.
+    :param collection: A mutable ordered collection containing comparable items.
+    :return: The same collection ordered in ascending order.
     Examples:
     >>> patience_sort([1, 9, 5, 21, 17, 6])
     [1, 5, 6, 9, 17, 21]
@@ -64,21 +64,100 @@ def patience_sort[T: Comparable](collection: list[T]) -> list[T]:
     TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'int'
     """
     stacks: list[Stack] = []
-    # sort into stacks
+
+    # Place each element on the first suitable stack, following
+    # the rules of the patience sort algorithm.
     for element in collection:
-        new_stacks = Stack([element])
-        i = bisect_left(stacks, new_stacks)
-        if i != len(stacks):
-            stacks[i].append(element)
+        new_stack: list = Stack([element])
+        stack_index: list = bisect_left(stacks, new_stack)
+
+        if stack_index != len(stacks):
+            stacks[stack_index].append(element)
         else:
-            stacks.append(new_stacks)
+            stacks.append(new_stack)
 
-    # use a heap-based merge to merge stack efficiently
+    # Merge the stacks to produce the final sorted collection.
     collection[:] = merge(*(reversed(stack) for stack in stacks))
     return collection
 
 
+def mixed_patience_sort(collection: list) -> list:
+    """Sort integers, floats, and strings using patience sort.
+
+    Numbers are sorted by magnitude and placed before strings.
+    Strings are sorted alphabetically according to Python's
+    standard string ordering.
+
+    :param collection: A mutable collection containing integers,
+        floats, and strings.
+    :return: The same collection with numbers followed by strings.
+
+    Examples:
+    >>> mixed_patience_sort([1, 9, 3.64, "Apple", "letter", 23.65])
+    [1, 3.64, 9, 23.65, 'Apple', 'letter']
+
+    >>> mixed_patience_sort(["banana", "Apple", "letter"])
+    ['Apple', 'banana', 'letter']
+
+    >>> mixed_patience_sort([3.5, 1, 8.2])
+    [1, 3.5, 8.2]
+
+    >>> mixed_patience_sort([])
+    []
+
+    >>> mixed_patience_sort([1, {"name": "Obed"}])
+    Traceback (most recent call last):
+    ValueError: Only integers, floats, and strings are allowed.
+    """
+    number_items: list[int | float] = []
+    string_items: list[str] = []
+
+    for element in collection:
+        match element:
+            case int() | float():
+                number_items.append(element)
+            case str():
+                string_items.append(element)
+            case _:
+                raise ValueError("Only integers, floats, and strings are allowed.")
+
+    sorted_numbers: int = patience_sort(number_items)
+    sorted_strings: str = patience_sort(string_items)
+
+    collection[:] = sorted_numbers + sorted_strings
+    return collection
+
+
+def convert_item(item: str) -> int | float | str:
+    """Convert a string into an integer, float, or string.
+
+    :param item: The input string to convert.
+    :return: An integer, float, or the original string.
+
+    Examples:
+    >>> convert_item("25")
+    25
+
+    >>> convert_item("3.14")
+    3.14
+
+    >>> convert_item("Apple")
+    'Apple'
+    """
+    item = item.strip()
+
+    try:
+        return int(item)
+    except ValueError:
+        try:
+            return float(item)
+        except ValueError:
+            return item
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    user_input = input("Enter numbers separated by a comma:\n").strip()
-    unsorted = [int(item) for item in user_input.split(",")]
-    print(patience_sort(unsorted))
+    user_input: str | int | float = input(
+        "Enter integers, floats, and strings separated by commas:\n"
+    ).strip()
+    unsorted: str | int | float = [convert_item(item) for item in user_input.split(",")]
+    print(mixed_patience_sort(unsorted))