Perl's sorting algorithim is basically a quicksort. I don't know exactly what your data looks like but quicksort usually behaves very badly with nearly sorted data. This is for a logfile correct? It's possible that it's nearly sorted.

Another possibility. When faced with sorting an 800 Meg Search index, I gave up using pure Perl and just used system to punt it off to GNU sort. It went from over 8 hours to around 30 minutes. I had no desire to recreate the functionality of handling files this size. I just needed it to work.

You also might want to check out Mastering Algorithims in Perl by O'Reilly. It has a really good chapter on sorting.

-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."

In reply to Re: Slow at sorting? by shotgunefx
in thread Slow at sorting? by orbital

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