I want to hear what you think. I've got a module written called Tie::SortHash. I think it's something everyone can use. Observe:

# tie HASH, 'Tie::SortHash', ANON_HASH, SORT_EXPR

tie my %hash, 'Tie::SortHash', {
                                'John Doe'   => 25,
                                'Jane Doe'   => 39,
                                'Jim  Baker' => 30
                               }, q(
                                    my( $c, $d ) = ( $a, $b );
                                    $c =~ s/\w+\s//;
                                    $d =~ s/\w+\s//;
                                    $c cmp $d || $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$
+a}
                                   );
[download]

Now, when you iterate over the hash, it will always come out in sorted order you've specified.

print "$_\t$hash{$_}\n" foreach keys %hash;
<code>
will <b>always</b> produce:
<code>
Jim Baker    30
Jane Doe    39
John Doe    20
[download]

This stops the annoying need to say:

foreach ( sort keys %hash ) {
...
}
[download]

All the time.

I have also added the ability to update your sort block at any time:

(tied %hash)->newsortblock( q($b cmp $a) );
[download]

And the sort block must be passed as a non-interpolated string becuase it was the only way to allow complex sorts. ( ie. sort on value ). And inside the sort string, the variable %hash is generic, it would be the same for this example:

my %people = (
              'John Doe'   => 25,
              'Jane Doe'   => 39,
              'Jim  Baker' => 30
             );

my $sortblock = q(
                  my( $c, $d ) = ( $a, $b );
                  $c =~ s/\w+\s//;
                  $d =~ s/\w+\s//;
                  $c cmp $d || $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a}
                 );

tie %people, 'Tie::SortHash', { %people }, $sortblock;
[download]

Feedback welcome, prefferably in the form of "Yeah, I like that" or "What tha...?"

--
Casey

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