I'm just showing it here for the sake of showing an alternative way. I don't expect it to be faster - hashes are pretty fast, and the sort is likely to dominate the running time anyway.

Abigail

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings 'all';

my @info;

while (<DATA>) {
    my ($num, $info) = split ' ', $_, 2;

    if (@info && $num == $info [-1] [0]) {
        $info [-1] [2] ++;
    }
    else {
        push @info => [$num, $info, 1]
    }
}

print map {"@{$_}[0, 1]"} sort {$b -> [2] <=> $a -> [2]} @info;

__DATA__
1  info1
1  info1
1  info1
2  info2
3  info3
3  info3
4  info4
4  info4
4  info4
4  info4



$ ./count
4 info4
1 info1
3 info3
2 info2
$
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1
1
1
1
2
2
3
4
4
4
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e.g
1
4
2
3
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#! /usr/local/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $num_of_params;

$num_of_params = @ARGV;

if ($num_of_params < 2)
{
die ("\n You haven't entered enough parameters !! \n\n");
}

open (FILE, $ARGV[0]) or die "unable to open file";

open (OUTFILE, ">$ARGV[1]");

my $line;
my @array;
my $number;
my $count=0;

while (<FILE>)
{
        $line = $_;
        chomp ($line);

        @array = ();
        @array = split (/\s+/, $line);

 foreach $number ($array[0])
 {
 ++$count;
 print "$count\n";
 print OUTFILE "$count\n";

  if ($number != $number-1 )
  {
  print "$number\n";
  print OUTFILE "$number\n";
                                                
  }
 }
}
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sub occurence {
    my %count;
    $count{$_}++ for @_;
    return sort { $count{$b} <=> $count{$a} } keys %count;
}

print "$_\n" for occurence qw(1 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 4 4);
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In the future, please reply to the node you're replying to (sounds logical, doesn't it?).

- Yes, I reinvent wheels.
- Spam: Visit eurotraQ.

The principal of counting frequency is based on this type of code:

 
my @array = (1,1,1,2,3,3,4,4,4,4);
my %count;

$count{$_}++ for @array;

my @ordered =  sort {$count{$b} <=> $count{$a}} keys %count;  

print map {"$_\n"} @ordered;
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The hash stores the count in the value and the item in the key. The keys are then sorted by comparing the values with eachother, with respect to the keys.

--
Steve Marvell

thanks marvell, this runs well, but the only problem is that the output prints every number (i only want one of each number printed) it also prints every number again when it comes across a new number!! e.g

@array = (1,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,5,5)

OUTPUT

1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
3
2
1
3
2
1

ETC
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I am also not sure if is printing the most frequent value at the top or not. any suggestions??? :-) the help so far is much appreciated.

How about ...

my %counter;

$counter{$_}++ while (<DATA>);

print sort {$counter{$b} <=> $counter{$a}} keys %counter;  
  
__DATA__
1    info
1    info
1    info
2    info
3    info
3    info
4    info
4    info
4    info
4    info
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This increments a counter for each of the lines. Then sorts them in reverse count order.

Maybe this is close to what you want. Let us know if it needs any changes.

--
Steve Marvell

First, read your data in a way that you get:

my @data = (
             [1,"info"],   
             [1,"info"],   
             [1,"info"],   
             [2,"info"],   
             [3,"info"],   
             [3,"info"],   
             [4,"info"],   
             [4,"info"],   
             [4,"info"],   
             [4,"info"],   
            );
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Then make a hash keyed on both values (assuming the 'info' can have another value):

my %freq = ();
foreach my $datum (@data) {
    $freq{ sprintf("%d    %s", @$datum) }++;
}
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Finally we print out the keys sorted by frequency. Setting $, to $/ puts a line break in after each element:

{
    local $,=$/;
    print sort { $freq{$b} <=> $freq{$a} } keys %freq;
}
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This sort of frequency counting hash is a pretty common idiom.

After Compline,
Zaxo

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my @array = qw(
1    info    
1    info
1    info
2    info
3    info
3    info
4    info
4    info
4    info
4    info
);

my %score;
for (my $i=0;$i<$#array;$i+=2) { # get numbers from @array
    $score{ $array[$i] }++;                # count the numbers
}

my %infos =  @array;

my @output =
    map  { "$_\t$infos{$_}\n"; }
    sort { $score{$b} <=> $score{$a} }
    keys %score;
    
print @output;
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my @rated_data = (
   [$number1,$info1],
   [$number2,$info2],
   [$number3,$info3],
);
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-- 
Joost       downtime n. The period during which a system
            is error-free and immune from user input.
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