Functions of particular interest to you will be split and sort. Here's a code example to get you on your way. 

#! /usr/bin/perl

use strict ;
use warnings ;
$|++ ;

# Read the data into a 2d array
chomp( my @lines = <DATA> ) ;
my @data = () ;
foreach ( @lines )
{
    my @cells = split ;
    push @data, \@cells ;
}

# Sort the list by user.
my @data_by_name = sort { $a->[0] cmp $b->[0] } @data ;

# Sort the list by date & time.
my @data_by_date = sort {    $a->[3] <=> $b->[3] 
                          || $a->[4] <=> $b->[4] } @data ;

__DATA__
u12345 x10 qwerty  20020725 1421
u12357 x11 asdf;;  20020727 1524
u12245 x12 perl    20020722 1941
u12145 x13 python  20020725 1825
u12945 x14 /bin/sh 20020724 1331
u12545 x15 grep    20020721 1921

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In reply to Re: Sorting big text lists by DamnDirtyApe
in thread Sorting big text lists by Infinity

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