my @data = ( [ qw(Jeff Goldblum Actor) ], [ qw(Mary Heartman Priest) ], [ qw(John Ericsson Mathmetician) ], [ qw(Tony Cisneros Chef) ], ); my @sorted = map { $_->[0] } # Line 4 sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] } # Line 3 map { [ $_, $_->[2] ] } # Line 2 @data; # Line 1 for ( @sorted ) { printf "%s %s - %s\n", @{ $_ }; }