use strict;
use warnings;
main();
xyz();
sub main{
    my $h;
    foreach (1..20){
    $h->{$_} = int rand (100);
    }
    foreach (sort by_val keys %{$h}){
    print "$_","\t",$h->{$_};
    }
}
sub xyz {
    my $k;
    foreach (1..20){
    $k->{$_} = int rand (100);
    }
    foreach (sort by_val keys %{$k}){
    print "$_","\t",$k->{$_};
    }

}
    

sub by_val {
    $h->{$a} <=> $h->{$b};
}
[download]

In that case:

use strict;
use warnings;
main();
xyz();
sub main{
    my $h;
    foreach (1..20){
        $h->{$_} = int rand (100);
    }
    my $by_val = make_sort($h);
    foreach (sort $by_val keys %{$h}){
              print "$_","\t",$h->{$_};
    }
    print "\n";
}
sub xyz {
    my $k;
    foreach (1..20){
              $k->{$_} = int rand (100);
    }
    my $by_val = make_sort($k);
    foreach (sort $by_val keys %{$k}){
              print "$_","\t",$k->{$_};
    }
    print "\n";
}
    
sub make_sort {
    my $dat = shift;
    return sub { $dat->{$a} <=> $dat->{$b} };
}
[download]

Yes that should work. Strict was the issue. In general I dont want a direct reference to the data structure being sorted, since i want to put the sort function in a required library, which has always been somewhat of an issue for me.
I very much like this solution - thanks much