import random
ran_list = [random.random() for _ in range(30)]
print "The original random list is:"
print ran_list

def saveFile(mystr,myfile):
    filehandle = open(myfile,"w")
    filehandle.write(str(mystr))
    filehandle.close()

myfilename = "random.txt1"
saveFile(ran_list,myfilename)
myfilename = "random.txt2"
saveFile(ran_list,myfilename)

filehandle = open(myfilename,"r")
s = filehandle.read()    # this will not make sense because it reads everything from the file as string, now I am going to define a better saveFile function

def saveFile2(mystr,myfile):
    filehandle = open(myfile,'w')
    for element in mystr:
        filehandle.write(str(element)+' ')
    filehandle.close()

myfilename = "random.txt3"
saveFile2(ran_list,myfilename)

filehandle = open(myfilename,'r')
s = filehandle.read()
newlist = []           # create a new list to save all numbers 
for element in s.split():     # we split this line by space
   newlist.append(float(element))
#print newlist
z = random.sample(newlist,5)
print "Samples from the list in the file"
print z
#print s

sorteds = sorted(ran_list)   # this is going to sort from smallest to largest
print "Sorted list from smallest to largest"
print sorteds

sorteds = sorted(ran_list,key=abs,reverse=True) # this is going to sort from largest to smallest
print "Sorted list from largest to smallest"
print sorteds