use strict;

my %hash = (
  1 => 'angel',
  2 => 'buffy',
  3 => 'cordelia',
  4 => 'dawn',
  5 => 'ethan',
  6 => 'faith',
  7 => 'giles'
);

reorder(5,'up'); # ethan moves up: swaps place with dawn

display();

sub reorder(){
  my ($item,$direction) = @_;
  if($direction eq 'up'){   # coming soon -- 'down'
    my $tmp = $hash{$item}; # save ethan
    $hash{$item} = $hash{ ($item -1) }; # move dawn down to 5
    $hash{ ($item -1) } = $tmp; # put ethan back as 4
  }
}


sub display {
    print '-' x 30,"\n";
  foreach my $key (sort (keys (%hash))) {
    printf("%12s is now number %d\n",$hash{$key},$key);
  }
    print '-' x 30,"\n";
}
##</code><code>##

sub reorder(){
  my ($item,$direction) = @_;
  if($direction eq 'up'){
    $hash{$item,($item -1)} = $hash{ ($item -1), $item};
    # maybe perl can automagically do the $tmp thing for me?
  }
}
##</code><code>##

------------------------------
       angel is now number 1
       buffy is now number 2
    cordelia is now number 3
        dawn is now number 4
       ethan is now number 5
             is now number 5
       faith is now number 6
       giles is now number 7
------------------------------