my @indices_of_myhash_key_info_array = 0 .. $#{$myHash{$key}{info}}; my @two_element_arrayrefs_with_sortkey_and_data = map { [ split /:/, $myHash{$key}{info}[$_], 2 ] } @indices_of_myhash_key_info_array; my @two_element_arrayrefs_sorted_by_sortkey = sort { $a->[0] <=> $b->[0] } @two_element_arrayrefs_with_sortkey_and_data; my @data_element_only_sorted_by_sortkey = map { $_->[1] } @two_element_arrayrefs_sorted_by_sortkey; for (@data_element_only_sorted_by_sortkey) { print "$_,$key"; }