my $sort = 'hours'; # really comes from a switch

my %map = ( #     sorting map
    hours => [0, \sub {<=>}],
    code  => [1, \sub {cmp}],
    name  => [2, \sub {cmp}],
);

# example data 
my @records = (
   [10, 'xyz232', 'secret project'],
   [ 5, 'foo123', 'world domination'],
   [ 7, 'bar666', 'have a beer'],
);

for (
     sort {$a->[$map{$sort}->[0]] $map{$sort}->[1] $b->[$map{$sort}->[0]]} 
     @records
   ) {
   print join ", ", @$_;
}

##</code><code>##

my %map = (
    hours  => sub {sort { $_[0] <=> $_[0] } };,
    number => sub {sort { $_[0] <=> $_[0] } };,
    name   => sub {sort { $_[0] <=> $_[0] } };,
    task   => sub {sort { $_[0] <=> $_[0] } };,
);