If each hash referent in an array contains information about a unique platform and if each platform is uniquely identified by, say, a  'platformid' => ... (or some other such) number, it may be enough to sort just by these unique platform identifier numbers: 

my @array1 = (
 {'platformid' =>  '22', ... },
 {'platformid' => '100', ... },
 ...,
 );
my @ordered_array1 = sort { $a->{platformid} <=> $b->{platformid} }@ar
+ray1;  # ascending numeric sort
...;
my $rc = Compare(\@ordered_array1, \@ordered_array2);
...;

[download]
Of course, if you have an array like 
my @array1 = (
 {'platformid' =>  '22', 'some' => 'stuff', ... },
 {'platformid' => '100', ... },
 ...,
 {'platformid' =>  '22', 'other' => 'things', ... },
 ...,
 );

[download]
this is not going to work.

Note also that things like  'platformid' => '22' that seem to be numbers should be numerically compared with the  <=> operator. Lexical (string-wise) comparison of numbers with the  cmp operator will give strange results.

Another point is that if you really need to use an enormously complex comparison like 

my @array3 = sort { 
    $a->{platformid} cmp $b->{platformid} 
    or 
    $a->{da} cmp $b->{da} 
    or 
    $a->{ma} cmp $b->{ma} 
    or 
    $a->{os} cmp $b->{os} 
    or 
    $a->{cc} cmp $b->{cc} 
    or 
    $a->{objecttype} cmp $b->{objecttype} 
    or 
    $a->{host} cmp $b->{host} 
    or 
    $a->{size} cmp $b->{size} 
    } @array1;

[download]
and use it in more than one place, then this comparison can and should be encapsulated in a sanity-saving function: 
sub enormously_complex_compare {
    $a->{platformid} <=> $b->{platformid}  # numeric?
    or 
    $a->{da} cmp $b->{da} 
    or 
    $a->{ma} cmp $b->{ma} 
    or 
    $a->{os} cmp $b->{os} 
    or 
    $a->{cc} cmp $b->{cc} 
    or 
    $a->{objecttype} <=> $b->{objecttype}  # numeric?
    or 
    $a->{host} <=> $b->{host}  # numeric?
    or 
    $a->{size} <=> $b->{size}  # ??? comparing array references ???
    }

my @array3 = sort enormously_complex_compare @array1;
my @array4 = sort enormously_complex_compare @array2;
...

[download]
Note that the value of the  'size' key is an array reference, and comparing references as numbers (or strings) is problematic: exactly what is the point of this comparison?

Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

In reply to Re: Compare complex perl data structures by AnomalousMonk
in thread Compare complex perl data structures by AnishaM

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