Why can't I reassign variables in this function?

Question

Here is the question:

You will be given an array of numbers. You have to sort the odd numbers in ascending order while leaving the even numbers at their original positions.

Here is my code:

def sort_array(source_array):
    odd_ints = []

    for i in source_array:
        if i % 2 == 1:
            odd_ints.append(i)
            odd_ints.sort()
        else:
            pass
    counter = 0
    for x in source_array:
        if x % 2 == 1:
            x = odd_ints[counter]
            counter += 1
            print(source_array)
        else:
            pass

    return source_array

When I test it, it does this:

>>> sort_array([5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 4])
[5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 4]
[5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 4]
[5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 4]

[5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 4]

For some reason, I can't re-assign the variable x in the function to odd_ints in ascending order. Would anyone know the problem in my code?

Answer 1

You just need to save the positions of the odd integers as well to replace them:

def sort_array(source_array):
    odd_ints = []
    positions = []
    counter = 0 #need counter to get positions
    for i in source_array:
        if i % 2 == 1:
            odd_ints.append(i) #keep the values
            positions.append(counter) #keep the position
        counter += 1
    odd_ints.sort() #sort for replacement
    counter2 = 0 #need second counter to place sorted list
    for pos in positions:
        source_array[pos] = odd_ints[counter2] #place the sorted values
        counter2 += 1
    return source_array

print(sort_array([5, 3, 2, 8, 1, 4]))

Output:

[1, 3, 2, 8, 5, 4]