#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Data::Dumper; my @ar = ("Z","B","A"); my %x = ('period' => "2010/05", 'type' => "voice", 'tcon' => "A,B" , 'hcon' => [@ar] ); print Dumper \%x; @{$x{'hcon'}} = sort @{$x{'hcon'}}; print Dumper \%x;