title: How to manually sort a list of numbers in Python?
body: <p>Specs: Ubuntu 13.04, Python 3.3.1  </p>
  
  <p>Background: total beginner to Python, came across this "manual sorting" problem.  </p>
  
  <p>What I was asked to do: "Have the user enter 3 numeric values and store them in 3 different variables. Without using lists or sorting algorithms, manually sort these 3 numbers from smallest to largest." </p>
  
  <p>What I was able to come up with: </p>
  
  <pre><code>number = input("Please enter 3 numbers: ")
  number = list(number)
  
  a = int(number[0])
  b = int(number[1])
  c = int(number[2])
  
  new_l = []
  
  if a &gt; b and a &gt; c:
      new_l.append(a)
      if b &gt; c:
          new_l.append(b)
          new_l.append(c)
      else:
          new_l.append(c)
          new_l.append(b)
      print(new_l)
  
  if b &gt; a and b &gt; c:
      new_l.append(b)
      if a &gt; c:
          new_l.append(a)
          new_l.append(c)
      else:
          new_l.append(c)
          new_l.append(a)
      print(new_l)
  
  if c &gt; a and c &gt; b:
      new_l.append(c)
      if a &gt; b:
          new_l.append(a)
      else:
          new_l.append(b)
          new_l.append(a)
      print(new_l)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So my question is: 
  I realize that my solution is extremely limited. First it can only process 3 single digit numbers since once the input string is converted into a list, there is no way to break all digits correctly into individual numbers the user intended. Second,by using this solution, the coder is forced to enumerates all possible scenarios for the 3 numbers to compare with each other, which could be very inflexible if say, the script were to be changed to accepting user input of 100+ numbers.</p>
  
  <p>If you could share some guidance regarding the question above, or regarding how to solve this problem in a different way, I'll be very greatful! Thank you. </p>