c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -e "my %cities = qw( Tucson AZ Boston MA Jackson MS Dixon NM Denton TX Cincinnati OH ); for my $place (sort { printf qq{'$cities{$a}' }; $cities{$a} cmp $cities{$b}; } keys %cities) { print qq{\n '$place' in '$cities{$place}'}; } " 'OH' 'NM' 'TX' 'AZ' 'MS' 'OH' 'AZ' 'MA' 'MS' 'TX' 'TX' 'Tucson' in 'AZ' 'Boston' in 'MA' 'Jackson' in 'MS' 'Dixon' in 'NM' 'Cincinnati' in 'OH' 'Denton' in 'TX'