'col1', 'col2']) col1 col2 col3 col4 1 A 1 1 B 0 A 2 0 a 2 B 9 9 c 5 C 4 3 F 4 D 7 2 e 3 NaN 8 4 D Sort Descending >>> df.sort_values(by='col1', ascending=False) col1 col2 col3 col4 4 D 7 2 e 5 C 4 3 F 2 B 9 9 c 0 A 2 0 a 1 A 1 1 B 3 NaN 8 4 D Putting NAs first >>> df.sort_values(by='col1', ascending=False, na_position='first') col1 col2 col3 col4 3 NaN 8 4 D 4 D 7 2 e 5 C 4 3 F 2 B 9 9 c 0 A 2 0 a 1 A 1 1 B Sorting with a key function >>> df.sort_values(by='col4', key=lambda col: col.str.lower()) col1 col2 col3 col4 0 A 2 0 a 1 A 1 1 B 2 B 9 9 c 3 NaN 8 4 D 4 D 7 2 e 5 C 4 3 F Natural sort with the key argument, using the `natsort ` package. >>> df = pd.DataFrame({ ... "time": ['0hr', '128hr', '72hr', '48hr', '96hr'], ... "value": [10, 20, 30, 40, 50] ... }) >>> df time value 0 0hr 10 1 128hr 20 2 72hr 30 3 48hr 40 4 96hr 50 >>> from natsort import index_natsorted >>> df.sort_values( ... by="time", ... key=lambda x: np.argsort(index_natsorted(df["time"])) ... ) time value 0 0hr 10 3 48hr 40 2 72hr 30 4 96hr 50 1 128hr 20 r½