Sure it is! Just put the sub declarations in another package, use package at the top of your main code, and then use a fully qualified package name in place of up and down. However, since the code for these two subs is small, and refers to a specific variable in a wider scope, this may not be a good idea. Here is a rewrite of the sort_em sub that may point out why.

sub sort_em {
    my %nos =  @_; #Don't make a ref just to deref it, just 
                   #pass the hash. Use 'my' to indicate 
                   #lexical scope
    print "UP:\n";
    print join "\n", sort { $nos{$a} <=> $nos{$b} } keys %nos; #just p
+ass in short sorting routines on the line
     #of the sort

    print "\n\nDOWN:\n";
    print join "\n", sort { $nos{$b} <=> $nos{$a} } keys %nos; #same a
+s above

}
[download]

Note that the declaration of the subs up and down inside the braces of sort_em does not make them lexically scoped.

Cheers,
Erik