my %results; foreach (1 .. 40) { my $hit = int rand(30); my $id = int rand(1000); $results{$id} = [ $id, $hit ]; # Store ID and hit in array } foreach (0 .. 999) { my $data = int rand(100); # Only stack data we're interested in: if(exists($results{$_})) { push @{$results{$_}}, $data; } } # Sort by descending hit (array[1] entry): my @search_results = sort { $b->[1] <=> $a->[1] } values %results; foreach (@search_results) { my ($hit, $id, $data) = @$_; print "$hit $id $data\n"; }