So first sort by signum, but zero go first, then sort normally: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

use Test::More;
use Test::Deep;

my @in  = -2 .. 2;
my @exp = (0, 1, 2, -2, -1);

my @sorted = sort {
    ((-1, 0, 1)[$a <=> 0] <=> (-1, 0, 1)[$b <=> 0]) || ($a <=> $b)
} @in;

cmp_deeply([@sorted], [@exp]);

done_testing();

[download]

Update: It seems comparable to grepfirst, thus slower than sortfirst.

Update 2: This seems to be a bit faster than grepfirst, but still not as fast as sortfirst: 

            ((($a <=> 0) & 3) <=> (($b <=> 0) & 3)) || ($a <=> $b)

[download]

map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]||0,1}[\*||{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^*ARGV,3]

In reply to Re: Fastest way to sort a list of integers into 0,1,2,3,-3,-2,-1 by choroba
in thread Fastest way to sort a list of integers into 0,1,2,3,-3,-2,-1 by haukex

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