old_contents: 
  # coding: utf-8
  
  # In[79]:
  
  import math
  import operator
  import json
  from geopy.distance import great_circle
  
  
  # In[90]:
  
  class Order_districts():
      
      def get_district_info():
          # -- get names and coordinates from csv file
          with open('coordinates.json') as coord_file:    
              district_dict = json.load(coord_file)
          return district_dict
  
  
  # In[134]:
  
  get_district_info(); # test for json reading
  
  
  # In[128]:
  
  def distance(lat0, lon0, lat, lon):
      '''
      Calculates distance on Earth's surface in meters
      '''
      return great_circle((lat0,lon0), (lat,lon)).meters
  
  def e_distance(x,y,w,z): 
      '''
      Euclidean distance calculation for simple sorting purposes
      '''
      a = math.pow(x - w,2)
      b = math.pow(y - z,2)
      return math.sqrt(a+b)  
  
  
  # In[131]:
  
  def order_districts(lat0, lon0, district_dict):
      '''
      function that return a list of names of districts ordered by distance from the point (lat0,lon0) passed from map
      Inputs: 'lat0' = latitude of point at center of map
              'lon0' = longitude of point at center of map
              'district_dict' = dict of district names and (lat,lon) from function get_district_info()
      Outputs: df with district names ordered by distance, coordinates of district (lat,lon)
      '''
      distance_dict={}
      # -- loop thru entries in coord/name dictionary
      for key, value in district_dict.iteritems():
          lat = float(value[0]); lon = float(value[1]);
          # -- calculate coords in radians
          #Delta_lat = math.radians(lat0-lat) # latitudinal distance 
          #Delta_lon = math.radians(lon0-lon) # longitudinal distance
          #lat0 = math.radians(lat0) # convert to radians
          #lat = math.radians(lat)
          distance_dict[key] = distance(lat0, lon0, lat, lon)
  
      sorted_districts = sorted(distance_dict.items(), key=operator.itemgetter(1))
  
      return zip(*sorted_districts) 
  
  
  # In[136]:
  
  #order_districts(27.67298,85.43005,get_district_info())[0] # test for distance
  
  
  # In[121]:
  
  
  
  
  # In[ ]:
  
  
  
  
new_contents: 
  import math
  import operator
  import json
  from geopy.distance import great_circle
  
  
  class Order_districts():
      
      def get_district_info():
          # -- get names and coordinates from csv file
          with open('coordinates.json') as coord_file:    
              district_dict = json.load(coord_file)
          return district_dict
  
  
  get_district_info(); # test for json reading
  
  def distance(lat0, lon0, lat, lon):
      '''
      Calculates distance on Earth's surface in meters
      '''
      return great_circle((lat0,lon0), (lat,lon)).meters
  
  def e_distance(x,y,w,z): 
      '''
      Euclidean distance calculation for simple sorting purposes
      '''
      a = math.pow(x - w,2)
      b = math.pow(y - z,2)
      return math.sqrt(a+b)  
  
  def order_districts(lat0, lon0, district_dict):
      '''
      function that return a list of names of districts ordered by distance from the point (lat0,lon0) passed from map
      Inputs: 'lat0' = latitude of point at center of map
              'lon0' = longitude of point at center of map
              'district_dict' = dict of district names and (lat,lon) from function get_district_info()
      Outputs: df with district names ordered by distance, coordinates of district (lat,lon)
      '''
      distance_dict={}
      # -- loop thru entries in coord/name dictionary
      for key, value in district_dict.iteritems():
          lat = float(value[0]); lon = float(value[1]);
          # -- calculate coords in radians
          #Delta_lat = math.radians(lat0-lat) # latitudinal distance 
          #Delta_lon = math.radians(lon0-lon) # longitudinal distance
          #lat0 = math.radians(lat0) # convert to radians
          #lat = math.radians(lat)
          distance_dict[key] = distance(lat0, lon0, lat, lon)
  
      sorted_districts = sorted(distance_dict.items(), key=operator.itemgetter(1))
  
      return zip(*sorted_districts) 
  
subject: Update district_distance.py