You understand sort well, so there's not much efficiency to be gained, I think.
However, I would have used some complex data structure for readability. This also removes the need for temporary variables. (but adds an array)
my @data =
        sort {
                $a->[7] cmp $b->[7] ||
                $b->[6] <=> $a->[6] ||  # '' == 0
                $a->[0] <=> $b->[0] ||
                $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] ||
                $a->[2] <=> $b->[2] ||
                $a->[4] cmp $b->[4] ||
                $a->[3] cmp $b->[3]
        } map {
                [ /^(\d+)(\D+)(\d+)(\D*)R(\d+)(B?)(\d*)\.(\w+)$/ ]
        } <DATA>;
print "$_->[0]$_->[1]$_->[2]$_->[3]R$_->[4]$_->[5]$_->[6].$_->[7]\n" f
+or @data;

[download]
I've made some mistake in there, but I leave it up to you to find and fix it. For some reason, my version puts 113B28R2.ras two places too high (top==0) in the array.

I think my version is more readable, and threrefore more reliable and maintainable (if the bug is fixed, that is ;))

2;0 juerd@ouranos:~$ perl -e'undef christmas'
Segmentation fault
2;139 juerd@ouranos:~$

[download]

In reply to Re: complex sort by Juerd
in thread complex sort by mkmcconn

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.