I'm a bit hesitant to post this because I don't really like the eval at the end.... but I think it will point you in a better (or at least more interesting) direction, and hopefully others will comment on my use of eval.

Anyway, the code below creates some simple sorting routines at runtime.... 

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;

my @arr  = (6..10,1..5);

my $asc  = sortmaker(1);
my $desc = sortmaker(0);

my @asc  = sort $asc  @arr;
my @desc = sort $desc @arr;

print "Original:   @arr\n";
print "Ascending:  @asc\n";
print "Descending: @desc\n";

sub sortmaker {
  my $order = shift;
  my $clause = $order ? '$a <=> $b' : '$b <=> $a';
  eval "sub { $clause }";
}

=OUTPUT
Original:   6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5
Ascending:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Descending: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

[download]

-Blake

In reply to Re: How do I create a sort sub on-the-fly? by blakem
in thread How do I create a sort sub on-the-fly? by CharlesClarkson

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