You need a custom sort procedure. The following should work:

sub custom_sort {
    my @a_parts = split /,/, $a;
    my @b_parts = split /,/, $b;
    return $a_parts[0] cmp $b_parts[0] ||
           $a_parts[1] cmp $b_parts[1] ||
           $a_parts[2] cmp $b_parts[2];
}

# To invoke:
my @sorted = sort custom_sort @{ $outputRef };

[download]

This would be easier if \@outputRef used arrayrefs for members rather than strings. But like you said, you have no control over that.

Chris
M-x auto-bs-mode

In reply to Re: Sorting a referrenced array and need to sort by specific fields. by lachoy
in thread Sorting a referrenced array and need to sort by specific fields. by brentheigold

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