# open the file
  open my $fh, '<', 'myfile.dat' or die "$!"

  # translate the data into a 2D array
  my @rows = map [ split /\s+/ ],  <$fh>;

  # sort on any column
  my @sorted = sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] } @rows;

  # print the result
  print "@$_\n" for @sorted;