You could just use a regular sort, and then bisect the list at 0:
>>> lst[1, -2, 10, -12, -4, -5, 9, 2]>>> from bisect import bisect>>> lst.sort()>>> i = bisect(lst, 0) # use `bisect_left` instead if you want zeroes first>>> lst[i:] + lst[:i][1, 2, 9, 10, -12, -5, -4, -2]The last line here takes advantage of a slice invariant lst == lst[:n] + lst[n:]
Another option would be to use a tuple as a sort key, and rely on lexicographical ordering of tuples:
>>> sorted(lst, key=lambda x: (x<0, x)) # use <= instead if you want zeroes last[1, 2, 9, 10, -12, -5, -4, -2]