How do I sort an array of arrays by array length

wolfman77 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

How do I sort an array of array by the length of the second array in descending form. For example if I have an array of arrays with 4 entries:

my @array = ( 
                        ['1', '2', '3', '4'], 
                        ['1','2','3','4','5','6']
                        ['1','2']
                        ['1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8']
                     );
[download]

The lengths of @{$array[0]} is 4, @{$array[1]} is 6, @{$array[2}] is 2 and @{$array[3]} is 8. I want to sort the array of arrays by the length of the arrays. So that the array now looks like this:


my @sortedarray = ( 
                       ['1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8'], 
                        ['1','2','3','4','5','6'],
                        ['1', '2', '3', '4'], 
                        ['1','2']
                     );
[download]

Comment on How do I sort an array of arrays by array length Select or Download Code

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Re: How do I sort an array of arrays by array length by kcott (Archbishop) on Feb 27, 2014 at 11:32 UTC
G'day wolfman77, Welcome to the monastery. In scalar context, `@array_name` evaluates to the number of elements in `@array_name`. You can sort your array like this: `my @sortedarray = sort { @$b <=> @$a } @array;` [download] -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: How do I sort an array of arrays by array length by wolfman77 (Initiate) on Feb 27, 2014 at 11:37 UTC
That works great. Many thanks!	[reply]
Re: How do I sort an array of arrays by array length by Corion (Patriarch) on Feb 27, 2014 at 11:28 UTC
Have you looked at perlfaq4, especially How do I sort an array by (anything)??	[reply]