my @xx = ( 'dfb|cy|nmju', 'dfb|my|jhiho', 'aaa|zz|gggg' );

my $sort_field = 1;

my @sorted_xx = map { $_->[1] } sort {$a->[0] cmp $b->[0]}
                map { [ (split /\|/, $_)[$sort_field], $_ ] } @xx;