Ok, the hash makes sense. Thanks for you help. Now (since I know next to nothing about hashes and I don't have my books) I need to ask another question. I kept my question simple for ease of understanding, but now I need to get more indepth.

My data set also contain a "class" element like so:
name_x|score|date|class1
name_y|score|date|class2
name_y|score|date|class2
name_a|score|date|class2
name_b|score|date|class3
name_z|score|date|class1
name_b|score|date|class3
name_x|score|date|class1
name_b|score|date|class3
name_c|score|date|class2
name_c|score|date|class3
name_c|score|date|class3
...and so on

[download]
I need 3 seperate lists (actually html tables) based on the class (3 possible classes) and I need the lists in decending order by number of incidents of the names. so we get: 
_class1_
name_x = 2
name_z = 1

_class2_
name_y = 2
name_c = 1

_class3_
name_b = 3
name_c = 2

[download]
I know this is getting a little complex, but I'm lost.
Thanks again.

In reply to Re: Re: Counting incidents of names in a file by Bishma
in thread Counting incidents of names in a file by Bishma

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