my ($i, $j);

foreach my $value (sort {$statefinal{$i} cmp $statefinal{$j}} keys %st
+atefinal) {
  print "$value $statefinal{$value}\n";
}
[download]

That code was suppose to sort by values, but I'm just getting a lot of uninitialized values errors when I run it. It's not sorting by values (states).

$i and $j have no meaning (Update: and are given no value; i.e., are uninitialized) in your comparison expression (see sort). Try something like:

foreach my $fn_ln (sort { $statefinal{$a} cmp $statefinal{$b} } keys %
+statefinal) {
  print qq{'$fn_ln' in $statefinal{$fn_ln}};
  }
[download]

Update: NB: This sorts the keys (first/last name) by their values (states) in lexic-ascending order.

You're using $value as key?

Cheers Rolf

( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

That code was suppose to sort by values

You're nearly there...

my %hash;
for my $i (0 .. $#fname) {
    $hash{ "$fname[$i] $lname[$i]" } = $state[$i]
}

# sort the keys by value

for my $key ( sort { $hash{$a} cmp $hash{$b} } keys %hash ) {
    print "$key $hash{$key}\n";
}

# alternatively

my @sorted = sort { $hash{$a} cmp $hash{$b} } keys %hash;

for my $key ( @sorted ) {
    print "$key $hash{$key}\n";
}
[download]

$a and $b are special variables and are not the same as $i and $j in your example... see sort