Finding the nth smallest number in a list?
Question: i need a efficient way of getting the nth smallest number AND its index in a
list containing up to 15000 enties (so speed is not super crucial).

I sadly can't use numpy or any other non-standard library.

Im using Python 2.7


Answer: use `heapq.nsmallest` (and `enumerate` to get the index):

    
    
    nums = [random.randint(1,1000000) for _ in range(10000)]
    
    import heapq
    import operator
    
    heapq.nsmallest(10,enumerate(nums),key=operator.itemgetter(1))
    Out[26]: 
    [(5544, 35),
     (1702, 43),
     (6547, 227),
     (1540, 253),
     (4919, 360),
     (7993, 445),
     (1608, 495),
     (5832, 505),
     (1388, 716),
     (5103, 814)]
    

