>>> l1 = [3, 8, 9, 2, 123, 234]
>>> def int2str(i):
... return str(i)
...
>>> l1.sort(key=int2str)
>>> l1
[123, 2, 234, 3, 8, 9]
>>>
>>> l1 = [3,8,9,2,123, 234]
>>> l1.sort(key=lambda el: str(el))
>>> l1
[123, 2, 234, 3, 8, 9]
>>> l1 = [3,8,9,2,123, 234]
>>> l1.sort(key=str)
>>> l1
[123, 2, 234, 3, 8, 9]
>>>