I was given the following problem at work. A DATA sample and my solution follows the READMORE tag.

Problem: Print a directory of engineering drawings in the order determined by drawing number data contained in the filename: 

 
 TYPE  Part  (Detail) Revision (ALT) layer
 1D     1              R1       B1    .vec
 18D    20     A       R0             .ras

Sort order:

  1. layer,
  2. reverse(ALT),
  3. TYPE,
  4. Part,
  5. Revision,
  6. Detail

ALT, if it exists, must be queued in reverse order (e.g. 3,2,1,'') 

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

for (sort{
        
        # TYPE: $t0_$t1_
        # Part: $p0_
        # Det : $pda
        # Rev : $r_
        # ALT : $alt_
        # Layer $l_

        my ($t0a,$t1a,$p0a,$pda,$ra,$alta,$la) = 
            map(m!(\d+)(\D+)(\d+)(\D*)R(\d+)B?(\d*)\.(\w+)$!,$a);
        my ($t0b,$t1b,$p0b,$pdb,$rb,$altb,$lb) =
            map(m!(\d+)(\D+)(\d+)(\D*)R(\d+)B?(\d*)\.(\w+)$!,$b);
  
          $la  cmp $lb      ||
          ($altb eq ''? 0 :$altb)  <=> ($alta eq '' ? 0 : $alta)  ||
          $t0a <=> $t0b     ||
          $t1a cmp $t1b     ||
          $p0a <=> $p0b     ||
          $ra  cmp $rb      ||
          $pda cmp $pdb;    
  
  }<DATA>){
  chomp;
  print;
}

__DATA__
18DD13AR0B2.vec
5A344R2B15.ras
5A344R2B15.vec
5A35SR0.ras
113A28R1.vec
113A28AR0.vec
113A29R0.ras
5A32R0.ras
113A29R1.vec
18AD13XR0B3.ras
18AD13XR0B3.vec
113A22R1.ras
5A35R0.vec
5A34R0.ras
113A22R1.vec
18DD12YR0B2.vec
18DD13AR0B2.ras
113A29AR0.ras
113A29AR2.vec
113A28R0.vec
5A33R0.vec
5A34R0.vec
5A35R0.ras
113A28AR2.vec
113B28R2.ras
113A28R2.vec
13B29AR0B1.ras
113B29AR0B1.vec
5A32R0.vec
5A33R0.ras

[download]

Explanation:

  • separate alpha and numeric values to sort separately,
  • compare in order of highest to lowest priority,
  • compare lower priority values only if higher order comparison returns '0'; mkmcconn

    • In reply to complex sort by mkmcconn

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