#so it sounds like your asking for something like this?

  while (<DATA>) {
  # skip blank and commented lines
         next if /^\s*#/;
         next if /^\s*$/;
        
        # We'll look for lines that describe a report:
     if (s/^\s*report:\s+//i) {
        # line is a report description
 chomp;
        @report{qw(sort list)} = split;
  
         # set defaults  
        $report{sort} ||= 'source';
#        $report{acl}  ||= 'all';
        
}
       
 else {
 my ($log_source,$time,$source_ip,$source_port,$dest_ip,$dest_port,
     $repeats,$acl_number,$log_number) = (split/,/);
    
$list{$_}={site => $log_source,time =>$time, sip=>$source_ip,
    sport =>$source_port, dip => $dest_ip, dport =>$dest_port,  
    hits =>$repeats, acl =>$acl_number, lnum =>$log_number}; 
   }
}
#close fh;
 
 if ( $report{acl} eq 'all' ) {
    for( qw(site-a time-a sport-d hits-a) ){
      list_by_sort($_, \%list)  if $report{sort} eq 'sort';
      print "\n"
       }
    }
 else {
    list_by_sort($report{list}, \%list)       if $report{sort} eq 'sor
+t';
    }
sub ST(&@){
        my $metric=shift;
        map {$_->[0]}
        sort {$a->[1] cmp $b->[1]}
        map {[$_,&{$metric}]} @_
}
sub list_by_sort{
        my @fields = split/,/,shift;
        my $list = shift;
    #input from the report line of the data
        my $date    = localtime;
        $date       =~ s/ /-/g;
        my $report_file_name = "$date.SORT";

        ###stores report data in file 
    
        open OF, ">>$report_file_name" or die "Can't Open $report_file
+_name: $!";
        print OF "         REQUEST FOR SORTING\n\n";
        print OF "FILE WAS GENERATED ON:  $date \n";
#know I don't know how to compare the fields and do the sorts
#the -a is for asc. and -d for descending
        print OF ST{
                my $key=$_;
                my %h = %{$list->{$key}};
                join"\0",map{
                        my($k,$d)=split/-/;
                        $d eq "d"?~$h{$k}:$h{$k};
                }@fields;
        } keys %$list;
}
#
__DATA__
report:  sort site-a,time-a,sport-d,hits-a
Monmouth,2000-05-2000:00:09-04,192.35.75.69,138,192.100.255,66,2,101,1
+234
Jackson,2000-04-2100:00:10-05,192.35.12.03,144,192.67.29,134,8,101,148
+7
Meade,2001-01-0500:00:11-04,213.132.32,175,184.57.62.35,151,12,101,153
+2
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