If you would like to use a module to do this, you can check out Data::Table. It provides a function that lets you sort by one or more column and use different sort orders for each column.

Alternatively, you may prefer to write your own code to do the sorting. You can check out How to sort array by columns maintaining the rows? (for C style arrays) for some suggestions on how to write your own code.

I've used both of the above methods to accomplish the task that you are trying to do.

See also A Fresh Look at Efficient Perl Sorting

I think you also need to be more clear about exactly what is in your list. Is it strings:

my @list = (
    '100, 10, y',
    '100, 9, n',
    ...,
    '90, 8, n',
    ...,
    );
[download]

my @list = (
    [ 100, 10, y ],
    [ 100,  9, n ],
    ...,
    [  90,  8, n ],
    ...,
    );
[download]

Really depends on what your data structure looks like. For instance, if you've got an array of arrays (i.e. array references), you could do the following:

my @sorted = sort { 
    $b->[0] <=> $a->[0] || $b->[1] <=> $a->[1] || $b->[2] cmp $a->[2] 
} @list;
[download]

If you've got an array of strings of the form "100, 10, y", use a Schwartzian Transform (Wikipedia has more) to be able to use the above:

my @sorted =
    map  { join ",", @$_ }
    sort { $b->[0] <=> $a->[0] || $b->[1] <=> $a->[1] || $b->[2] cmp $
+a->[2] }
    map  { my @t = split /,/, $_; \@t }
    @list;
[download]

EDIT:

Update: Thank you all! Thank you AppleFritter, that worked like a charm!

You're welcome, partner! *tips hat*

Thank you! That worked great!

there are many different ways in perl to sort numbers, i found those here

 use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
#Remove duplicates from array.
my @array = qw/10 20 20 20 30 40 40 40 50 50 50/;
print "\n Duplicate array: @array";

##1) Good
my %hash;
$hash{$_} = 0 for (@array);
# $hash{$_} = () for (@array); #You can do this also

my @final = keys (%hash);
print "\n Unique Array: @final";
print "\n";


##2) Best of all
my %hash = map { $_ , 1 } @array;
my @uniq = keys %hash;
print "\n Uniq Array:", Dumper(\@uniq);
[download]

Source: Different ways to remove duplicates from array - sort and uniq in perl

Those don't actually sort a list, they remove duplicate entries from it.

Another variant on the same theme is using a slice, e.g.:

my @array = (10 20 20 20 30 40 40 40 50 50 50);

my %hash;
@hash{ @array } = ();

say keys %hash;
[download]

But what I'd personally recommend is using the uniq function from List::MoreUtils (or List::AllUtils if you can't be bothered to remember whether functions are List:Util or List:MoreUtils).

It avoids reinventing the wheel (fun as it is to do so as an academic exercise), it's shorter, and it makes it crystal clear what's going on, which will benefit whoever reads your code at a later time.

EDIT: changed @hash{ @array } = 0 to @hash{ @array } = (); thanks for the suggestion to choroba.

You've been around for a little while, I'm sure you know that you need to post what you've attempted.

This isn't a code writing service, but a service that educates people.

-stevieb

If you're on linux/unix you could use the sort utility which will do that without you writing any code at all.