Re^2: Numeric Sorting on Characters

halecommarachel supplies no example data, so this point is a bit unclear, but I assume that the real data has elements that are a '-' (dash) rather than that contain dashes. E.g.,
qw(1 10 - 2 -3 20 - - 3 0 2 11 8 7);
rather than
qw/987-665-888 456-123-000 000-000-000 123-456-789/

Caveat Programmor.

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Re^3: Numeric Sorting on Characters by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Aug 15, 2013 at 13:24 UTC
`/me nods ...` In which case, if careful research into the problem confirms that,: Yes, that dash is legitimate data, and there is no bug either in this program or in the upstream source, and the downstream program(s) will know what to do, and therefore, here is how we wish to sort it, ... (heh) ... Then, as you know, the Perl `sort` verb relies upon a `sub`routine to do the sort-comparison, “and this is why.” Although it is most frequently a “one-liner,” it can be a much more elaborate thing which receives two parameters, `$a` and `$b`. (And, if you do several `sort`s the same way, it can be a separate, not-inline, subroutine that all of them use.) All of which is well and good ... but I think that I’m in the majority thinking that a bug .. somewhere upstream .. has been uncovered here.

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Re^3: Numeric Sorting on Characters
by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Aug 15, 2013 at 13:24 UTC

/me nods ...

In which case, if careful research into the problem confirms that,:

Yes, that dash is legitimate data, and
there is no bug either in this program or in the upstream source, and
the downstream program(s) will know what to do, and therefore,
here is how we wish to sort it,

... (heh) ...

Then, as you know, the Perl sort verb relies upon a subroutine to do the sort-comparison, “and this is why.” Although it is most frequently a “one-liner,” it can be a much more elaborate thing which receives two parameters, $a and $b. (And, if you do several sorts the same way, it can be a separate, not-inline, subroutine that all of them use.) All of which is well and good ... but I think that I’m in the majority thinking that a bug .. somewhere upstream .. has been uncovered here.