use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; # nice my @Data; # bad name, what does it store? while(){ my($meth,$list,$count)= split ','; push @Data, { 'meth'=>$meth, 'list'=>$list, 'count'=>$count }; } print "Unsorted:\n", Dumper( @Data ), "\n"; @Data = sort { $a->{'meth'} cmp $b->{'meth'} } @Data; # swap $a and $b if you want the other direction print "Sorted:\n", Dumper( @Data ), "\n"; __DATA__ def,phyton\tjavascript,2 abc,perl\terlang\tlisp,1 ghi,arc\truby\tprolog,3 #### my %dd; $dd{'1'}{'2'}{'3'}="hi"; $dd{'1'}{'3'}{'5'}="hello"; print "\nkeys in hash: ", join ' ', keys %{ $dd{'1'} };