sub bottom { shift->[0] }; sub top { shift->[1] }; sub ide { shift->[2] }; sub contains { bottom($_[0]) <= bottom($_[1]) && top($_[0]) >= top($_[1]) }; sub rangeSort1 { map { my $x = $_; [$x, [grep {contains($x, $_)} (grep { ide($_) ne ide($x) } @_) ] ] } @_ }; my $test = [ [11, 22, "A"] , [22, 45, "B"] , [22, 33, "C"] , [25, 28, "D"] , [47, 49, "E"] ];