Since hashes are inherently unordered (well, as far as the programmer is concerned), you're going to have some trouble doing that cleanly. One unclean way of doing that (for top level keys only) is:

    print Dumper map [$_, $hash{ $_ }], sort keys %hash;
[download]

However, since that breaks name/value pairs into a series of array refs, you'll probably be less than pleased with the output. You could also try Tie-SortHash-1.01. I have no idea if that would work, but the documentation suggests to me that it might.

Cheers,
Ovid

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Sice Data::Dumper uses XS (ie is written in C) hacking the source to get what you want is less than trivial. I wanted this myself a while ago. Here is a hack that reformats the standard Data::Dumper output and sorts on keys - it produces the output you expect, just sorted:

Update

Made sub recursive and added some options for numeric, alpha or auto choice sort and optional array sorting. It now sorts all elements to whatever depth

Update

Code has been moved to snippets Sort Data::Dumper Output and patched to correctly handle AoH and AoA constructs

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

use Data::Dumper;
%hash = ( 
x=> 'line 1',
z=> [ 1, 2, 4],
y=> { file=> 'test.txt',
      length=> 200,
      type => 'ASCII'
    },
a=> 'line 2'
);

foreach(sort{ $a cmp $b } keys(%hash)) {
        print Dumper($hash{$_});
}
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use Storable;

$Storable::canonical = 1;

my %hash = (
            x=> 'line 1',
            z=> [ 1, 2, 4],
            y=> { file=> 'test.txt',
                  length=> 200,
                  type => 'ASCII'
                  },
            a=> 'line 2'
            );


store \%hash, 'hashfile.txt';
[download]

-Blake

I was speaking to Gurusamy Sarathy and the Data::Dumper that is in the latest Perl 5.7.x code base nicely supports sorting hashes. You can find it here: http://public.ActiveState.com/gsar/APC/perl-current/ext/Data/Dumper/

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

IIRC there is a module for ordering hashes: libtie-ixhash-perl on Debian woody, give me a mo, I'll find the module name.

here

--

Brother Frankus.

¤

In addition to chipmunk's suggestion of Data::Dump, I'd suggest Data::Denter. This module sorts by default on hash keys.

-- Hofmator

Trying to examine the output is tedious to put it mildly.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."

Thanks for all the help, this is what turned out to be the easiest fix, Ovid's suggestion


use Data::Dumper;
use Tie::SortHash;
 
%hash = ( 
x=> 'line 1',
z=> [ 1, 2, 4],
y=> { file=> 'test.txt',
      length=> 200,
      type => 'ASCII'
    },
a=> 'line 2'
);
tie %hash, 'Tie::SortHash', \%hash;
print Dumper(\%hash);
[download]


and all came out as I desired.
g_White

It should always be that easy! Didn't think a tie would work. I just "ass"umed that Data::Dumper was walking the structure in a clandestine fashion.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."

Update Doesn't work for complex stuctures like HoH :(
I guess I'll try Data::Denter