my @keys = sort { $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a} || $b cmp $a } keys %hash; my $half = int($#keys / 2); printf "%s => %s\t%s => %s\n", $keys[$_ ], $hash{$keys[$_ ]}, $keys[$_+$half], $hash{$keys[$_+$half]} for 0 .. $half-1; printf "%s => %s\n", $keys[$#keys], $hash{$keys[$#keys]} unless $#keys % 2;