Thank you all for helping me out. Immediately after I submitted my question, I browse through this site and came across some code snippet that is currently working for me. Here is what I have done: 
#!/usr/bin/perl

while (<>) {
    $str .= $_;
}

@lines = split ("\n", $str);

@sorted = sort fooSort @lines;

foreach $line (@sorted)
{
    print ("$line\n");
}

sub fooSort {
    my @a = split '\|', $a;
    my @b = split '\|', $b;
    $a[0] cmp $b[0] || $b[1] <=> $a[1]
}

[download]
The above achieves what I wanted.
I will also try out some of the suggestions given by others. Thank you again for your help.

regards,
vincent

In reply to Re: sorting question by chanv
in thread sorting question by chanv

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