given an object and the specifications, setup the internal grouper
        for this particular specification

        Parameters
        ----------
        obj : the subject object
        sort : bool, default False
            whether the resulting grouper should be sorted

def _set_grouper(self, obj, sort=False):
        """
        given an object and the specifications, setup the internal grouper
        for this particular specification

        Parameters
        ----------
        obj : the subject object
        sort : bool, default False
            whether the resulting grouper should be sorted
        """

        if self.key is not None and self.level is not None:
            raise ValueError(
                "The Grouper cannot specify both a key and a level!")

        # Keep self.grouper value before overriding
        if self._grouper is None:
            self._grouper = self.grouper

        # the key must be a valid info item
        if self.key is not None:
            key = self.key
            # The 'on' is already defined
            if (getattr(self.grouper, 'name', None) == key and
                    isinstance(obj, ABCSeries)):
                ax = self._grouper.take(obj.index)
            else:
                if key not in obj._info_axis:
                    raise KeyError(
                        "The grouper name {0} is not found".format(key))
                ax = Index(obj[key], name=key)

        else:
            ax = obj._get_axis(self.axis)
            if self.level is not None:
                level = self.level

                # if a level is given it must be a mi level or
                # equivalent to the axis name
                if isinstance(ax, MultiIndex):
                    level = ax._get_level_number(level)
                    ax = Index(ax._get_level_values(level),
                               name=ax.names[level])

                else:
                    if level not in (0, ax.name):
                        raise ValueError(
                            "The level {0} is not valid".format(level))

        # possibly sort
        if (self.sort or sort) and not ax.is_monotonic:
            # use stable sort to support first, last, nth
            indexer = self.indexer = ax.argsort(kind='mergesort')
            ax = ax.take(indexer)
            obj = obj._take(indexer, axis=self.axis, is_copy=False)

        self.obj = obj
        self.grouper = ax
        return self.grouper