Any compact idea I am unable to think of?

Just remove the 0-valued entry from the hash before you start? That's a simple way not to choose it.

It isn't entirely clear to me from your description precisely what it is you want to achieve, unfortunately. Perhaps a test would help? ie: How to ask better questions using Test::More and sample data

In reply to Re: Alternative to sort Hash by hippo
in thread Alternative to sort Hash by IB2017

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