maruti:

As has been mentioned, if you care about the order, then a hash may be the wrong data structure to use. But if you're in control of the form as well, then the order isn't important--since you built the form, you know the correct order. So just grab the data items from the hash in the order you want to print them:

for my $field_name (qw( bandwidth distance size active )) {
   my $value = $$ref{$field_name};
   print $FH "$field_name, $value\n";
}
[download]

So you could modify your write_file routine to do it that way.

If you're using write_file for multiple forms, then you could modify write_file to accept a list of field names so you can specify the order, kinda like this:

sub write_file {
    my ($cinfo, $data, $fields) = @_;
    . . .
    if (!defined $fields) {
        # caller didn't specify field order, so we need a list
        # of data items, so get 'em from the hash
        $fields = [ keys %$data ];
    }
    for my $field_name (@$fields) {
        my $value = $$ref{$field_name};
        print $FH "$field_name, $value\n";
    }
    . . .
}

. . .
write_file($config{'info'}, $ref, [qw(bandwidth distance size active)]
+ );
[download]

This change lets you pass in the order you want to write_file, and if you don't specify the order, it will print them the same as it does now (i.e., whatever order the hash chooses). This lets you change the write_file routine without breaking it for everyone else.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.