use strict; my $foo = [ {blah=>'aaa'},{blah=>'ddd'},{blah=>'ccc'} ]; my $sortfunc = sub { $a->{blah} cmp $b->{blah} }; my @arr = sort $sortfunc @$foo; #### my @arr = do {local *sortfunc = $sortfunc; sort sortfunc @$foo};