Is this sort works also for characters?

Yes, by default, sort sorts alphabetically. Consider:

12:36 >perl -Mstrict -wE "my @array = ('c', 'bb', 'aaa'); say for sort
+ @array;"
aaa
bb
c

12:37 >

[download]

Here sort puts 'aaa' first, because 'a', its first character, comes alphabetically before 'b' and 'c'. Similarly:

12:37 >perl -Mstrict -wE "my @array = ('3', '22', '111'); say for sort
+ @array;"
111
22
3

12:39 >

[download]

puts '111' first because '1' comes alphabetically before '2' and '3'.

Note that sort @array is shorthand for sort { $a cmp $b } @array; cmp compares alphabetically. To sort numerically, use <=> instead of cmp:

12:39 >perl -Mstrict -wE "my @array = ('3', '22', '111'); say for sort
+ { $a <=> $b } @array;"
3
22
111

12:43 >

[download]

See:

Hope that helps,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

In reply to Re^3: sorting hash of hashes by Athanasius
in thread sorting hash of hashes by dilip.renkila

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