@temp = map { s/^The // } @indata;
@sorted = sort {lc($a) cmp lc($b) } @temp;


##</code><code>##

    %hash = map { getkey($_) => $_ } @array;

is just a funny way to write 


    %hash = ();
    foreach $_ (@array) {
        $hash{getkey($_)} = $_;
    }



##</code><code>##

@temp = map {my $tmp; ($tmp = $_) =~ s/^The //; $tmp} @indata