I don't quite understand why your new requirement for output of this format:

typex
......
typey
.....
typea
.....
typez
......
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Couldn't match the very thing your code is doing now, that is print data in this format:

typea
name5 9 8 2 1 

typex
name1 1 2 3 4
name3 2 3 3 1 

typey
name2 3 4 5 6 

typez
name4 5 3 4 2
[download]

You should be more specific in what is it you want to do and how the output should be structured? At this stage, the only thing I see changed in your 'requirements' is the 'type' ordering. However, the new ordering doesn't appear to be alphanumeric. So, do you want some predefined ordering?

Update: thanks for clarification kevinw, so here goes the code:

my %types;

while (<DATA>) {
    chop;
    m/(.*)\s([^\s]+)$/
        or next;

    push @{$types{$2}}, $1;
}

foreach my $type (keys %types) {
    print "$type\n";
    print "$_\n" for @{$types{$type}};
}

__DATA__
name1 1 2 3 4 typex
name2 3 4 5 6 typey
name3 2 3 3 1 typex
name4 5 3 4 2 typez
name5 9 8 2 1 typea
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And subsequent output:

typex
name1 1 2 3 4
name3 2 3 3 1
typea
name5 9 8 2 1
typey
name2 3 4 5 6
typez
name4 5 3 4 2
[download]

But even this is really a rewrite of your original code and doesn't do any sorting, especially the way you want it as it doesn't appear to be in proper alphanumerical order.

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# Under Construction
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