sub short_sorts {
  my ($a,$b,$type) = @_;
  
  # Legend:
  # cs = case sensitive
  # ci = case insensitive
  # a  = ascending
  # d  = descending
  # r  = reverse (right to left)
  # n  = numbers
  # l  = length of value

  # Note:
  # If you put $b from the main script into $a in this subroutine and use descending,
  # you will actually get the list returned in ascending order.
  
  my %sorts = (
    'cs-a'   => sub { $_[0] cmp $_[1] },
    'cs-a-r' => sub { reverse($_[0]) cmp reverse($_[1]) },
    'cs-d'   => sub { $_[1] cmp $_[0] },
    'cs-d-r' => sub { reverse($_[1]) cmp reverse($_[0]) },
    'ci-a'   => sub { uc $_[0] cmp uc $_[1] },
    'ci-a-r' => sub { uc reverse($_[0]) cmp uc reverse($_[1]) },
    'ci-d'   => sub { uc $_[1] cmp uc $_[0] },
    'ci-d-r' => sub { uc reverse($_[1]) cmp uc reverse($_[0]) },
    'n-a'    => sub { $_[0] <=> $_[1] },
    'n-d'    => sub { $_[1] <=> $_[0] },
    'l-a'    => sub { length($_[0]) <=> length($_[1]) },
    'l-d'    => sub { length($_[1]) <=> length($_[0]) },
  );
  
  return $sorts{$type}->($a,$b) if $type;
  
  my $random_sort = (keys %sorts)[rand (keys %sorts)];
  return $sorts{$random_sort}->($a,$b) if !$type;
}

##</code><code>##

my @unsorted_array = qw(red yellow green cyan blue magenta);

my @sorted_array = sort { short_sorts($a,$b,'ci-d-r") } @unsorted_array;

print "$_\n" for @sorted_array;

##</code><code>##

yellow
green
cyan
blue
red
magenta