It sounds like a bubble sort. If you really can't use perl's sort for some reason ("capricious instructor mandates", getting a feel for perl's array operators, insanity, etc.), then you should at least know that it's quite easy to swap two values in an array with each other :
($array [$element_one], $array [$element_two]) = 
    ($array [$element_two], $array [$element_one])

[download]

you should also consult perlop to see how <=> and cmp work, which can considerably reduce the amount of code needed to write your own sorting mechanism.

update


I really think this would have a different outcome if we could see what the actual assignment is. Something's not being communicated correctly. I'm not advocating that the assignment be posted, of course, but this isn't going well for anyone.

In reply to Re: Tedious array sort revisited by boo_radley
in thread Tedious array sort revisited by gatornek

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.