my @sortedComplete = map { $_->[0] } sort { $a->[0] <=> $b->[0] } map { [ $_, (split /\t/, $_)[3] ]} @complete; # Do the same for @progress #### my @sortedComplete = map { join "\t", (split/\t/)[1,2,3,0] } sort map { join "\t", (split/\t/)[3,0,1,2] } @complete; # Do the same for @progress