Actually it does not matter that there are \w\.\w... sequences as . sorts before \w you get the desired result. The http:// is also immaterial provided all entries either have (or don't have it). cmp sorting does not stop at the first non word - it simply sorts in ASCII order.

print "$_\n" for sort qw (  http://. 
                            http://www.google.com 
                            http://www.google.co.uk 
                            http://au.google.com 
                            http://au.goo.com 
                            http://au.goop.com  
                         );

__DATA__
http://.
http://au.goo.com
http://au.google.com
http://au.goop.com
http://www.google.co.uk
http://www.google.com
[download]

This looks appropriately sorted to me. The IP code will get you the domain (or IP) in $1 regardless so you can easily modify it, but as this shows you don't really need to unless you want to trim off the ftp:// http:// https:// part and thus lump these in one group. The only other modification you can do to the domain name is chop the www. off (trying to guess other subdomains is a hopeless task) Otherwise the default cmp should work fine. Perhaps you could post an example of where it is not?

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

I'm quite sure the OP wanted something like:

http://.
http://au.goo.com
http://au.goop.com
http://au.google.com
http://www.google.com
http://www.google.co.uk
[download]

That is, sorted by TLD, then 2nd level domain, then 3rd, and so on. At least, it's what his code does (notice the reverse).

-- 
        dakkar - Mobilis in mobile

http://aset.its.psu.edu/announcements/newsgroup_changes.html
http://aset.its.psu.edu/unix_group/
http://aset.its.psu.edu/unix_group/unixaccounts.html
http://aset.psu.edu/ait/
http://aset.psu.edu/ait/filesys.html
http://aset.psu.edu/unix_group/lsfaqs.html
http://aset.psu.edu/unix_group/quickunix.html
http://cac.psu.edu/
http://cac.psu.edu/publish/htpasswd/alternate.html
http://clc.its.psu.edu/
http://clc.its.psu.edu/Labs/
http://clc.its.psu.edu/Labs/Mac/
http://clc.its.psu.edu/labs/Mac/software/all.aspx
http://clc.its.psu.edu/labs/Mac/software/default.aspx
http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/
http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/unix.html
http://css.its.psu.edu/news/alerts/
http://css.its.psu.edu/news/alerts/K4notice.html
http://its.psu.edu/
http://its.psu.edu/computing.html
http://its.psu.edu/learning.html
http://search.psu.edu/query.html

...is sorted by current algorithm (in OP) in the following desired order...

http://aset.psu.edu/ait/
http://aset.psu.edu/ait/filesys.html
http://aset.psu.edu/unix_group/lsfaqs.html
http://aset.psu.edu/unix_group/quickunix.html
http://cac.psu.edu/
http://cac.psu.edu/publish/htpasswd/alternate.html
http://aset.its.psu.edu/announcements/newsgroup_changes.html
http://aset.its.psu.edu/unix_group/
http://aset.its.psu.edu/unix_group/unixaccounts.html
http://clc.its.psu.edu/
http://clc.its.psu.edu/Labs/
http://clc.its.psu.edu/Labs/Mac/
http://clc.its.psu.edu/labs/Mac/software/all.aspx
http://clc.its.psu.edu/labs/Mac/software/default.aspx
http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/
http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/unix.html
http://css.its.psu.edu/news/alerts/
http://css.its.psu.edu/news/alerts/K4notice.html
http://its.psu.edu/
http://its.psu.edu/computing.html
http://its.psu.edu/learning.html
http://search.psu.edu/query.html

...sorting is done first on the 2d level TLD, then on hostname if any, then on the remaining string if any. (I thought i already wrote that in OP; perhaps was not clear...)

Lest we forget the question, is there a less verbose way (than the one in OP) to sort the URLs on criteria just presented above?

(Long) Side note: FWIW, i converted the given Schwartzian transform to Gottman-Rosler Transform as an exercise, which was faster around 14-16% (benchmarked, Perl 5.8, merge/quick sorts, FreeBSD 4.7/386) -- not much of a difference (to me in this case, unless i am missing something).

Read more... (5 kB)

I beg to differ, but simple sorting urls will put http://www.google.com/stuff nowhere near http://google.com/stuff or http://translate.google.com/stuff?