#! perl -slw use strict; use Inline::Files; use Data::Dump qw[ pp ]; my $n = 0; my %order = map{ chomp; $_ => ++$n } ; my @data = ; my @sorted = map{ unpack 'x4A*', $_; } sort map { my( $key ) = m[(^[^;]+);]; pack 'NA*', $order{ $key } // 2**31, $_; } @data; pp \@sorted; __FILE1__ 1 HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2305=27:2307=NAR@4;2306=eng@106:2308;2309=eng:0:21000:2:2066:0 2 HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2315=27:2316=NAR@4;2317=eng@106:2318;2319=eng:0:21020:2:2066:0 3 HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2320=27:2321=NAR@4;2322=eng@106:2323;2324=eng:0:21030:2:2066:0 ITV HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2305=27:2307=NAR@4;2306=eng@106:2308;2309=eng:0:21000:2:2066:0 __FILE2__ 3 HD 1 HD 2 HD __OUTPUT__ C:\test>1147112.pl [ "3 HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2320=27:2321=NAR\@4;2322=eng\@106:2323;2324=eng:0:21030:2:2066:0", "1 HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2305=27:2307=NAR\@4;2306=eng\@106:2308;2309=eng:0:21000:2:2066:0", "2 HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2315=27:2316=NAR\@4;2317=eng\@106:2318;2319=eng:0:21020:2:2066:0", "ITV HD;BSkyB:11097:VC23M5O25P0S1:S28.2E:23000:2305=27:2307=NAR\@4;2306=eng\@106:2308;2309=eng:0:21000:2:2066:0", ]