#! perl -sw use strict; #open(DATA, "+< tmp/$tmp.dat") or die "file:$tmp $!"; my ($a1,$b1); print + (sort { do{ ($a1) = $a =~ m/^([^,]+?),/; $a1; } <=> do{ ($b1) = $b =~ m/^([^,]+?),/; $b1; } } grep{ !m/^\s*$/ } )[0 .. 8];